---
title: Then the sparrows asked why he was weeping, when all around him seem… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the sparrows asked why he was weeping, when all around him seemed so cheerful. " Who acts: sparrows, sparrow. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Buckwheat, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Buckwheat, sentence 30

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Then the sparrows asked why he was weeping, when all around him seemed so cheerful. "

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**Who acts:** sparrows, sparrow · **What happens:** ask, weep, seem · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Buckwheat. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sparrows, sparrow), 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:pg27200:14:30
# text = Then the sparrows asked why he was weeping, when all around him seemed so cheerful. "
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	weeping	weep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
11	all	all	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	around	around	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	_
14	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	cheerful	cheerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the sparrows |  |  |  | then |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **weep** | past · progressive | sparrow |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **seem** | past | the sparrows *not said here* |  |  |  |  | around sparrow; all, cheerful *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |

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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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