---
title: They were full, and so they left the pigeons, exchanging opinions ab… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They were full, and so they left the pigeons, exchanging opinions about them, slipped in under the garden palings, and when they found the door leading into the house open, one of them, who was more than full, and therefore felt brave, hopped on to the threshold. " Who acts: sparrows. A sentence of 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 151

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They were full, and so they left the pigeons, exchanging opinions about them, slipped in under the garden palings, and when they found the door leading into the house open, one of them, who was more than full, and therefore felt brave, hopped on to the threshold. "

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**Who acts:** sparrows · **What happens:** be, leave, exchange, slip, find, lead · **To what, where:** pigeons, opinions, door, house, threshold

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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 (sparrows), 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:pg27200:124:151
# text = They were full, and so they left the pigeons, exchanging opinions about them, slipped in under the garden palings, and when they found the door leading into the house open, one of them, who was more than full, and therefore felt brave, hopped on to the threshold. "
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	pigeons	pigeon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	exchanging	exchange	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
13	opinions	opinion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
14	about	about	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	slipped	slip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	under	under	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	palings	paling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	advmod	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	leading	lead	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	_
31	into	into	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
34	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
36	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	parataxis	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
40	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	42	nsubj	_	_
41	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	cop	_	_
42	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	36	conj	_	_
43	than	than	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
47	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
48	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
49	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
51	hopped	hop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	48	conj	_	_
52	on	on	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
53	to	to	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	threshold	threshold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
57	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | sparrows *= sparrow* |  |  |  |  | full *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **leave** | past | sparrows *= sparrow* | the pigeons |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pigeon=Theme |
| 3 | **exchange** | gerund | sparrows *= sparrow* *not said here* | opinions |  |  |  | about sparrows *= sparrow* | vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent opinion=Theme |
| 4 | **slip** | past |  |  |  |  |  | in the garden palings | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in paling=Attribute |
| 5 | **find** | past | sparrows *= sparrow* | the door |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent door=Topic |
| 6 | **lead** | gerund | sparrows *= sparrow* *not said here* |  |  | the house |  | open *property* | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent into house=Destination |
| 7 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | than full; more *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **feel** | past |  |  |  |  |  | brave, therefore *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 9 | **hop** | participle |  |  |  | the threshold |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on threshold=Trajectory |

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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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