---
title: But they were not talking of the moon, but of a large, old stone tha… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But they were not talking of the moon, but of a large, old stone that lay below in the courtyard not very far from the kitchen door. Who acts: curtains, large old stone. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Grave-stone, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Grave-stone, sentence 3

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But they were not talking of the moon, but of a large, old stone that lay below in the courtyard not very far from the kitchen door.

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**Who acts:** curtains, large old stone · **What happens:** not talk, lie · **To what, where:** courtyard

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Grave-stone. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (curtains, large old stone), 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:pg27200:130:3
# text = But they were not talking of the moon, but of a large, old stone that lay below in the courtyard not very far from the kitchen door.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	moon	moon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
13	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
17	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
18	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
19	below	below	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	courtyard	courtyard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	18	advmod	_	_
26	from	from	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **talk** | past · progressive | curtains *= curtain* |  |  |  |  | of the moon | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **lie** | past | a large old stone |  |  | the courtyard |  | below, far *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in courtyard=Location |

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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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