---
title: On a beautiful sunny autumn day--one could almost have believed it w… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: On a beautiful sunny autumn day--one could almost have believed it was still the middle of summer--there hopped about in the dry clean-swept courtyard before the principal entrance of the Hall a number of black, white, and gaily-coloured pigeons, all shining in the sunlight. Who acts: sake, all. A s
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 125

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On a beautiful sunny autumn day--one could almost have believed it was still the middle of summer--there hopped about in the dry clean-swept courtyard before the principal entrance of the Hall a number of black, white, and gaily-coloured pigeons, all shining in the sunlight.

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**Who acts:** sake, all · **What happens:** believe, be, hop about, sweep, shine · **To what, where:** one, middle, dry clean swept courtyard, black coloured pigeons, sunlight

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Neighbouring Families. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sake, all), 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:pg27200:124:125
# text = On a beautiful sunny autumn day--one could almost have believed it was still the middle of summer--there hopped about in the dry clean-swept courtyard before the principal entrance of the Hall a number of black, white, and gaily-coloured pigeons, all shining in the sunlight.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
3	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
4	sunny	sunny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	autumn	autumn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	--	--	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux	_	_
12	believed	believe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	parataxis	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	still	still	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	parataxis	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	summer	summer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	22	expl	_	_
22	hopped	hop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
23	about	about	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
26	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
27	clean	clean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	swept	sweep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	amod	_	_
30	courtyard	courtyard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
31	before	before	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	principal	principal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	entrance	entrance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	Hall	Hall	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
41	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
43	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
46	gaily	gaily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	46	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	coloured	coloured	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	amod	_	_
49	pigeons	pigeon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
51	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	52	nsubj	_	_
52	shining	shine	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	49	acl	_	_
53	in	in	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | could · perfect · passive |  | one |  |  |  | almost *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is a** | past | sake | the middle |  |  | still; summer |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **hop about** | past |  |  |  | the dry clean swept courtyard before the principal entrance of the Hall and a number of black coloured pigeons; there |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in courtyard=Trajectory |
| 4 | **sweep** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **shine** | gerund | all | black coloured pigeons *not said here* |  | the sunlight |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent pigeon=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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