---
title: They had little ones, and of course each one thought his own the han… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They had little ones, and of course each one thought his own the handsomest and cleverest; one flew this way, another that, and when they met they recognised each other by their "Peep!" and the three scrapes with the left foot. Who acts: pigeons, one. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian And
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 170

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They had little ones, and of course each one thought his own the handsomest and cleverest; one flew this way, another that, and when they met they recognised each other by their "Peep!" and the three scrapes with the left foot.

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**Who acts:** pigeons, one · **What happens:** have, think, fly, meet, recognise, peep · **To what, where:** little ones, way, each

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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 (pigeons, one), 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:pg27200:124:170
# text = They had little ones, and of course each one thought his own the handsomest and cleverest; one flew this way, another that, and when they met they recognised each other by their "Peep!" and the three scrapes with the left foot.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADV	11	advmod	_	_
8	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	fixed	_	_
9	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
10	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	handsomest	handsome	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	13	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	cleverest	clever	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nsubj	_	_
20	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
21	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
22	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	conj	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	30	advmod	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	recognised	recognise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	conj	_	_
33	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	32	obj	_	_
34	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	fixed	_	_
35	by	by	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
37	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	Peep	peep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	38	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
43	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	44	nummod	_	_
44	scrapes	scrape	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	conj	_	_
45	with	with	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	left	left	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | pigeons *= pigeon* | little ones |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | each one |  |  |  |  | own *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **fly** | past | one | this way |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location way=Theme |
| 4 | **meet** | past | pigeons *= pigeon* |  |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **recognise** | past | pigeons *= pigeon* | each |  |  |  | by pigeons's Peep and the three scrapes with the left foot | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer each=Stimulus |
| 6 | **peep** *in a quote* |  | pigeons *= pigeon* |  |  |  |  |  | nom peep «event intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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