---
title: The sparrows assembled in dozens upon the wild vines, and chattered… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The sparrows assembled in dozens upon the wild vines, and chattered all together as loud as they could, but not about the old house; none of them could remember it, for many years had passed by, so many indeed, that the little boy was now a man, and a really good man too, and his parents were very p
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old House, sentence 124

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The sparrows assembled in dozens upon the wild vines, and chattered all together as loud as they could, but not about the old house; none of them could remember it, for many years had passed by, so many indeed, that the little boy was now a man, and a really good man too, and his parents were very proud of him.

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**Who acts:** sparrows, none, little boy, parents · **What happens:** assemble, chatter, remember, pass by, be · **To what, where:** dozens, railing, man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old House. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sparrows, none, little boy, parents), 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:pg27200:131:124
# text = The sparrows assembled in dozens upon the wild vines, and chattered all together as loud as they could, but not about the old house; none of them could remember it, for many years had passed by, so many indeed, that the little boy was now a man, and a really good man too, and his parents were very proud of him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	assembled	assemble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	dozens	dozen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
6	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	vines	vine	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	chattered	chatter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	all	all	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	together	together	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	as	as	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	loud	loud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
23	about	about	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	32	punct	_	_
28	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	32	nsubj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nmod	_	_
31	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	remember	remember	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	for	for	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	obl	_	_
38	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
39	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	32	ccomp	_	_
40	by	by	ADP	IN	_	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
42	so	so	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
43	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
44	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
46	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	53	mark	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
48	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	amod	_	_
49	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nsubj	_	_
50	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	53	cop	_	_
51	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	53	advmod	_	_
52	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	59	punct	_	_
55	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	59	cc	_	_
56	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
57	really	really	ADV	RB	_	58	advmod	_	_
58	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	59	amod	_	_
59	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
60	too	too	ADV	RB	_	59	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	67	punct	_	_
62	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	67	cc	_	_
63	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	64	nmod:poss	_	_
64	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	67	nsubj	_	_
65	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	67	cop	_	_
66	very	very	ADV	RB	_	67	advmod	_	_
67	proud	proud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
68	of	of	ADP	IN	_	69	case	_	_
69	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	67	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
70	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **assemble** | participle | the sparrows |  |  | dozens |  | upon the wild vines; about the old house | vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **chatter** | past | the sparrows *not said here* |  |  |  |  | loud *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **remember** | could | none | railing |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent it=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **pass by** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  | year |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | past | the little boy | a man |  |  | now |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** | past | house's parents |  |  |  |  | of house; proud *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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