---
title: So they sing about the "pepper gentleman;" so do they make sport of… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: So they sing about the "pepper gentleman;" so do they make sport of the poor old bachelor and his nightcap, and all because they really know nothing of either. Who acts: nightcaps. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap, with its depende
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap, sentence 17

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So they sing about the "pepper gentleman;" so do they make sport of the poor old bachelor and his nightcap, and all because they really know nothing of either.

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**Who acts:** nightcaps · **What happens:** sing, make, know · **To what, where:** sport, nothing

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nightcaps), 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:pg27200:128:17
# text = So they sing about the "pepper gentleman;" so do they make sport of the poor old bachelor and his nightcap, and all because they really know nothing of either.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sing	sing	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	about	about	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	pepper	pepper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
15	sport	sport	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	bachelor	bachelor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	nightcap	nightcap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
26	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	30	advmod	_	_
27	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	really	really	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
31	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	30	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	either	either	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sing** *speech: express* | present | nightcaps *= nightcap* |  |  |  |  | about the pepper gentleman | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about gentleman=Location |
| 2 | **make** | present · do-support | nightcaps *= nightcap* | sport |  |  |  | of the poor old bachelor and Denmark's nightcap | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset sport=Product |
| 3 | **know** | present | nightcaps *= nightcap* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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