---
title: They sat down, read their hymn-book, and held each other by the hand… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They sat down, read their hymn-book, and held each other by the hand, while the sun shone down upon the fresh roses and upon them. Who acts: birds, sun. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 61

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They sat down, read their hymn-book, and held each other by the hand, while the sun shone down upon the fresh roses and upon them.

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**Who acts:** birds, sun · **What happens:** sit down, read, hold, shine down · **To what, where:** hymn book, each, fresh roses

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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 (birds, sun), 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:pg27200:124:61
# text = They sat down, read their hymn-book, and held each other by the hand, while the sun shone down upon the fresh roses and upon them.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	down	down	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
7	hymn	hymn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	12	obj	_	_
14	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	fixed	_	_
15	by	by	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	shone	shine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
23	down	down	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	fresh	fresh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	roses	rose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit down** | past | birds *= bird* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **read** | infinitive | birds *= bird* *not said here* | birds's hymn book |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent book=Topic |
| 3 | **hold** | past | birds *= bird* *not said here* | each |  |  |  | by the hand | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent each=Theme by hand=Location |
| 4 | **shine down** | past | the sun |  |  | the fresh roses |  | down *property* | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon rose=Location |

<!-- .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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