---
title: But the youngest boy nodded to her in great glee, and called out in… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But the youngest boy nodded to her in great glee, and called out in his infantile prattle, 'We're playing at soldiers.' Who acts: youngest boy, We, boy. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Thirtieth Evening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Thirtieth Evening, sentence 19

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But the youngest boy nodded to her in great glee, and called out in his infantile prattle, 'We're playing at soldiers.'

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**Who acts:** youngest boy, We, boy · **What happens:** nod, call out, play, prattle · **To what, where:** mother, great glee, infantile prattle, soldiers

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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 (youngest boy, We, boy), 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:pg27200:121:19
# text = But the youngest boy nodded to her in great glee, and called out in his infantile prattle, 'We're playing at soldiers.'
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	amod	_	_
4	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	nodded	nod	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	glee	glee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl	_	_
14	out	out	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	infantile	infantile	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	prattle	prattle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	're	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **nod** | past | the youngest boy |  | mother | great glee |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to she=Recipient |
| 2 | **call out** *speech: assert* | participle |  | great glee *not said here* |  | boy's infantile prattle |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **play** | present · progressive | We |  |  | soldiers |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **prattle** |  | boy |  |  |  |  |  | nom prattle «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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