---
title: The roses thought that the nightingale was singing about itself, and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The roses thought that the nightingale was singing about itself, and that one might easily have believed; they had no idea that the song was about them. Who acts: roses, nightingale, song. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, with its d
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 47

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The roses thought that the nightingale was singing about itself, and that one might easily have believed; they had no idea that the song was about them.

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**Who acts:** roses, nightingale, song · **What happens:** think, sing, believe, have, be · **To what, where:** one, idea

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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 (roses, nightingale, song), 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:pg27200:124:47
# text = The roses thought that the nightingale was singing about itself, and that one might easily have believed; they had no idea that the song was about them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	roses	rose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	nightingale	nightingale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
9	about	about	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
14	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
16	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux	_	_
18	believed	believe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
22	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	23	det	_	_
23	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	about	about	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the roses |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | past · progressive | the nightingale |  |  |  |  | about nightingale | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about itself=Location |
| 3 | **believe** | might · perfect · passive |  | one |  |  |  | easily *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus |
| 4 | **have** | past | roses *= rose* | no idea |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent idea=Patient |
| 5 | **is** | past | the song |  |  |  |  | about clouds *= cloud* | 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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