---
title: It used to be the custom in those days that in the evening performan… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It used to be the custom in those days that in the evening performances in the only theatre the town possessed, spectators were admitted to the part called the "flies," over the stage, and every machinist had one or two places to give away. Who acts: machinery, town, days. A sentence of «Fairy Tales
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/139/40/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [Our Aunt](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/139/) / 40

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Our Aunt, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It used to be the custom in those days that in the evening performances in the only theatre the town possessed, spectators were admitted to the part called the "flies," over the stage, and every machinist had one or two places to give away.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** machinery, town, days · **What happens:** use, be, possess, admit, call, have · **To what, where:** custom, town, spectators, part, flies, one places · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Our Aunt. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (machinery, town, days), 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:pg27200:139:40
# text = It used to be the custom in those days that in the evening performances in the only theatre the town possessed, spectators were admitted to the part called the "flies," over the stage, and every machinist had one or two places to give away.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	custom	custom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	xcomp	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	42	nsubj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	performances	performance	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	theatre	theatre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
21	possessed	possess	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	spectators	spectator	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	admitted	admit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	flies	fly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
35	over	over	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	stage	stage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
40	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	41	det	_	_
41	machinist	machinist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
42	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
43	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	46	nummod	_	_
44	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	43	conj	_	_
46	places	place	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	obj	_	_
47	to	to	PART	TO	_	48	mark	_	_
48	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	acl	_	_
49	away	away	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **use** | past | machinery |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | to-infinitive | machinery *not said here* | the custom |  |  | day |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **possess** | participle |  | the town *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **admit** *speech: other* | past · passive | the town *not said here* | spectators | the part |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Topic to part=Recipient |
| 5 | **call** | participle |  | the part *not said here* | the flies |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent fly=Recipient |
| 6 | **have** | past | that days | one places |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Patient |
| 7 | **give away** | to-infinitive | that days *not said here* | one places *not said here* |  |  |  | away *property* | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/139/39/)
- next →: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/139/41/)
- ↑ back to [Our Aunt](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/139/)