---
title: But the rotten wood and the herring's head declared most solemnly, b… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But the rotten wood and the herring's head declared most solemnly, by all they held sacred, that the glow-worm only gave light at certain times, and must not be allowed to compete with themselves. Who acts: rotten wood, others, glow worm. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Street Lamp, sentence 35

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But the rotten wood and the herring's head declared most solemnly, by all they held sacred, that the glow-worm only gave light at certain times, and must not be allowed to compete with themselves.

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**Who acts:** rotten wood, others, glow worm · **What happens:** declare, hold, give, not allow, compete · **To what, where:** light

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Street Lamp. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rotten wood, others, glow worm), 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:pg27200:133:35
# text = But the rotten wood and the herring's head declared most solemnly, by all they held sacred, that the glow-worm only gave light at certain times, and must not be allowed to compete with themselves.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	rotten	rotten	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	herring	herring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
10	declared	declare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	12	advmod	_	_
12	solemnly	solemnly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	conj	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	sacred	sacred	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	glow	glow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	worm	worm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
25	only	only	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
27	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
28	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
33	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
34	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	36	advmod	_	_
35	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	aux:pass	_	_
36	allowed	allow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
38	compete	compete	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	xcomp	_	_
39	with	with	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **declare** *speech: other* | past | the rotten wood and the herring's head |  |  |  |  | solemnly *property* | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hold** | past | others *= other* |  |  |  |  | sacred *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **give** | past | the glow worm | light |  |  | time |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent light=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **allow** | must · passive | the rotten wood and the herring's head *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **compete** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the rotten wood and the herring's head *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with others *= other* | vn battle-36.4 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with themselves=Co-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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