---
title: "Listen to the dear little birds up there," said the roses; "they be… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Listen to the dear little birds up there," said the roses; "they begin to want to sing too, but are not able to manage it yet. Who acts: roses. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/124/24/)

<!-- 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/) / 24

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Listen to the dear little birds up there," said the roses; "they begin to want to sing too, but are not able to manage it yet.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** roses · **What happens:** listen, say, begin, want, sing, not be · **To what, where:** peep · **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 (roses), 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:pg27200:124:24
# text = "Listen to the dear little birds up there," said the roses; "they begin to want to sing too, but are not able to manage it yet.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
8	up	up	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	roses	rose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	begin	begin	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	too	too	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	advcl	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	manage	manage	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **listen** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  | there |  | to the dear little birds | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to bird=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the roses |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **begin** *in a quote* | present | roses *= rose* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **want** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | roses *= rose* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | roses *= rose* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | present | roses *= rose* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **manage** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | roses *= rose* *not said here* | peep |  |  | yet |  | vn caring-75.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/124/23/)
- next →: [sentence 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/124/25/)
- ↑ back to [The Neighbouring Families](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/124/)