---
title: "But we have the best bird after all," said one, and then they would… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "But we have the best bird after all," said one, and then they would have the bird sing again, although it was the thirty-fourth time they had listened to the same piece, and even then they had not learnt it, for it was rather difficult. Who acts: we, courtier, bird, flight. A sentence of «Fairy Tal
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Nightingale, sentence 89

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"But we have the best bird after all," said one, and then they would have the bird sing again, although it was the thirty-fourth time they had listened to the same piece, and even then they had not learnt it, for it was rather difficult.

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**Who acts:** we, courtier, bird, flight · **What happens:** have, say, sing, be, listen, not learn · **To what, where:** best bird, one, bird, fourth time, flight · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (we, courtier, bird, flight), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:125:89
# text = "But we have the best bird after all," said one, and then they would have the bird sing again, although it was the thirty-fourth time they had listened to the same piece, and even then they had not learnt it, for it was rather difficult.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
3	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	7	amod	_	_
7	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	after	after	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
23	again	again	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
25	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
29	thirty	thirty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	fourth	fourth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	32	amod	_	_
32	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
33	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	listened	listen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	32	acl:relcl	_	_
36	to	to	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
42	even	even	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
43	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	47	advmod	_	_
44	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
45	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	aux	_	_
46	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	47	advmod	_	_
47	learnt	learn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	conj	_	_
48	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
50	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	54	mark	_	_
51	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	54	expl	_	_
52	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	54	cop	_	_
53	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	54	advmod	_	_
54	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *in a quote* | present | we | the best bird |  |  | after all |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | one |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | would | courtier | the bird |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* | infinitive | the bird *not said here* |  |  |  | again |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | past | flight | the fourth time |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **listen** | past · perfect | courtier | the fourth time *not said here* |  |  |  | to the same piece | tree rules |
| 7 | **not** **learn** | past · perfect | courtier | flight |  |  | then |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 8 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | difficult *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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