---
title: "What kind of creatures are those little grey ones that run about be… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "What kind of creatures are those little grey ones that run about behind us?" asked an old pigeon, with red and green in her eyes. " Who acts: kind, little grey ones, old pigeon. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, with its dependency 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 127

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"What kind of creatures are those little grey ones that run about behind us?" asked an old pigeon, with red and green in her eyes. "

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**Who acts:** kind, little grey ones, old pigeon · **What happens:** be, run about, ask · **To what, where:** little grey ones · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (kind, little grey ones, old pigeon), 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:pg27200:124:127
# text = "What kind of creatures are those little grey ones that run about behind us?" asked an old pigeon, with red and green in her eyes. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	3	det	_	_
3	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
6	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
7	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
9	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
11	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	run	run	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
13	about	about	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
18	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	pigeon	pigeon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	ccomp	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	conj	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | what kind of creatures | that little grey ones |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **run about** *in a quote* | present | that little grey ones |  |  |  |  | behind us; about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme behind we=Trajectory |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | a old pigeon |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=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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