---
title: "We make it lively about the house," said the sparrow-mother; "and p… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "We make it lively about the house," said the sparrow-mother; "and people say that a swallows' nest brings luck; so they are glad of us. Who acts: We, sparrow mother, people, nest. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, with its dependenc
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"We make it lively about the house," said the sparrow-mother; "and people say that a swallows' nest brings luck; so they are glad of us.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** We, sparrow mother, people, nest · **What happens:** make, say, bring, be · **To what, where:** better, luck · **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 (We, sparrow mother, people, nest), 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:pg27200:124:37
# text = "We make it lively about the house," said the sparrow-mother; "and people say that a swallows' nest brings luck; so they are glad of us.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	make	make	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	lively	lively	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
6	about	about	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
20	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	swallows	swallow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	'	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	brings	bring	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	ccomp	_	_
27	luck	luck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	so	so	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
32	glad	glad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** *in a quote* | present | We | better *= good* |  |  |  | lively *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the sparrow mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **bring** *in a quote* | present | a swallows's nest | luck |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent luck=Theme |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | present | people |  |  |  |  | of us; glad *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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