---
title: The pigeons had often cooed, not to say growled--the spiteful creatu… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The pigeons had often cooed, not to say growled--the spiteful creatures; the sparrows had been frozen in winter and had lived merrily in summer: they were all betrothed, or married, or whatever you like to call it. Who acts: pigeons, you. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/124/169/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Neighbouring Families](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/124/) / 169

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 169

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The pigeons had often cooed, not to say growled--the spiteful creatures; the sparrows had been frozen in winter and had lived merrily in summer: they were all betrothed, or married, or whatever you like to call it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** pigeons, you · **What happens:** coo, not growl, freeze, live, betroth, marry · **To what, where:** spiteful creatures, sparrows, door · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (pigeons, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:124:169
# text = The pigeons had often cooed, not to say growled--the spiteful creatures; the sparrows had been frozen in winter and had lived merrily in summer: they were all betrothed, or married, or whatever you like to call it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	pigeons	pigeon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	often	often	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	cooed	coo	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	growled	growl	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	spiteful	spiteful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	frozen	freeze	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	lived	live	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	conj	_	_
26	merrily	merrily	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	summer	summer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	33	punct	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
31	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux:pass	_	_
32	all	all	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	betrothed	betroth	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	married	marry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
38	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	36	conj	_	_
40	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
41	like	like	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	39	acl:relcl	_	_
42	to	to	PART	TO	_	43	mark	_	_
43	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	xcomp	_	_
44	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **coo** | past · perfect | the pigeons |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **growl** | infinitive · passive | the pigeons *not said here* | the spiteful creatures |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V» |
| 3 | **freeze** | past · perfect · passive |  | the sparrows |  |  | winter |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Result |
| 4 | **live** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  | summer | merrily *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **betroth** | past · passive |  | sparrows *= sparrow* |  |  |  | all *property* | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: subject=Theme |
| 6 | **marry** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 7 | **like** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 8 | **call** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | door |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 168](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/124/168/)
- next →: [sentence 170](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/124/170/)
- ↑ back to [The Neighbouring Families](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/124/)