---
title: But they were very pleased with it, and wondered whether all the lit… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But they were very pleased with it, and wondered whether all the little sparrows could become nightingales. Who acts: roses, little sparrows. 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 clau
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 48

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But they were very pleased with it, and wondered whether all the little sparrows could become nightingales.

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**Who acts:** roses, little sparrows · **What happens:** be, wonder, become · **To what, where:** nightingales

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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, little sparrows), 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:pg27200:124:48
# text = But they were very pleased with it, and wondered whether all the little sparrows could become nightingales.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	pleased	pleased	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	wondered	wonder	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
12	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	15	det:predet	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
16	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
18	nightingales	nightingale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | roses *= rose* |  |  |  |  | with song; pleased *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | past | roses *= rose* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **become** | could | all little sparrows | nightingales |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

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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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