---
title: "My song sounds best in the green wood," said the bird; but still sh… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "My song sounds best in the green wood," said the bird; but still she came willingly when she heard the emperor's wish. Who acts: song, bird, My, emperor. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Nightingale, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Nightingale, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"My song sounds best in the green wood," said the bird; but still she came willingly when she heard the emperor's wish.

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**Who acts:** song, bird, My, emperor · **What happens:** sound, say, come, hear, sing, wish · **To what, where:** green wood, wish · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Nightingale. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (song, bird, My, emperor), 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:pg27200:125:56
# text = "My song sounds best in the green wood," said the bird; but still she came willingly when she heard the emperor's wish.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	sounds	sound	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	best	well	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	4	advmod	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	still	still	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
20	willingly	willingly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	's	's	PART	POS	_	25	case	_	_
27	wish	wish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sound** *in a quote* | present | My song |  |  | the green wood |  | well *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the bird |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **come** | past | song |  |  |  | still | willingly *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **hear** | past | song | the emperor's wish |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer wish=Stimulus |
| 5 | **sing** *in a quote* |  | My |  |  |  |  |  | nom song «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **wish** |  | the emperor |  |  |  |  |  | nom wish «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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