---
title: And then they pecked at the bird with their little beaks so that it… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: And then they pecked at the bird with their little beaks so that it was impossible for her to get into the nest; she was so exhausted that she couldn't even say "Peep!" much less "I am your own mother!" Who acts: eye, mother. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And then they pecked at the bird with their little beaks so that it was impossible for her to get into the nest; she was so exhausted that she couldn't even say "Peep!" much less "I am your own mother!"

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**Who acts:** eye, mother · **What happens:** peck, be, get, not say · **To what, where:** nest, Peep, own mother · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (eye, mother), 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:pg27200:124:86
# text = And then they pecked at the bird with their little beaks so that it was impossible for her to get into the nest; she was so exhausted that she couldn't even say "Peep!" much less "I am your own mother!"
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	pecked	peck	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	beaks	beak	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
12	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	16	mark	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	fixed	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	expl	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
17	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	csubj	_	_
21	into	into	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	exhausted	exhausted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
30	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
31	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
33	even	even	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	advcl	_	_
35	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	Peep	peep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	36	punct	_	_
39	much	much	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	46	advmod	_	_
41	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	46	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
43	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	46	cop	_	_
44	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	46	nmod:poss	_	_
45	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
46	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **peck** | past | eye |  |  |  | then | at the bird; with eye's little beaks | vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP PP»: agent=Agent at bird=Patient with beak=Instrument |
| 2 | **is** | past | eye *not said here* |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **get** | to-infinitive | mother |  |  | the nest |  |  | vn escape-51.1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme into nest=Destination |
| 4 | **is** | past | mother |  |  |  |  | exhausted *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **say** *speech: express* | could | mother | Peep |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent peep=Topic |
| 6 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | mother | your own mother |  |  |  | less *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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