---
title: Presently the eldest boy took his drum, and beat upon it till it rat… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Presently the eldest boy took his drum, and beat upon it till it rattled again; the bear rose upon his hind legs, and began to dance. Who acts: eldest boy, drum, bear. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Thirtieth Evening, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Thirtieth Evening, sentence 13

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Presently the eldest boy took his drum, and beat upon it till it rattled again; the bear rose upon his hind legs, and began to dance.

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**Who acts:** eldest boy, drum, bear · **What happens:** take, beat, rattle, rise, begin, dance · **To what, where:** drum, hind legs

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Thirtieth Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eldest boy, drum, bear), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg27200:121:13
# text = Presently the eldest boy took his drum, and beat upon it till it rattled again; the bear rose upon his hind legs, and began to dance.
1	Presently	presently	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	amod	_	_
4	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	drum	drum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	beat	beat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
11	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	_
13	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	rattled	rattle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
16	again	again	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
21	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	hind	hind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	dance	dance	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the eldest boy | boy's drum |  |  |  | presently *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent drum=Theme |
| 2 | **beat** | infinitive | the eldest boy *not said here* |  |  | drum |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon it=Location |
| 3 | **rattle** | past | drum |  |  |  | again |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **rise** | past | the bear |  |  | boy's hind legs |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon leg=Location |
| 5 | **begin** | past | the bear *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **dance** | to-infinitive | the bear *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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