---
title: "Are those the duck's children swimming here?" asked the young sparr… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Are those the duck's children swimming here?" asked the young sparrows when they saw the feathers on the water. Who acts: children, young sparrows, sparrows. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 16

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"Are those the duck's children swimming here?" asked the young sparrows when they saw the feathers on the water.

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**Who acts:** children, young sparrows, sparrows · **What happens:** be, swim, ask, see · **To what, where:** those, feathers, water · **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 (children, young sparrows, 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:pg27200:124:16
# text = "Are those the duck's children swimming here?" asked the young sparrows when they saw the feathers on the water.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	12	nsubj	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	's	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	appos	_	_
8	swimming	swim	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	acl	_	_
9	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
12	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | those |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **swim** *in a quote* | gerund | the duck's children *not said here* |  |  | here |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the young sparrows |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **see** | past | sparrows *= sparrow* | the feathers |  | the water |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer feather=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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