---
title: Like the wise King Solomon, he understood the language of animals, a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Like the wise King Solomon, he understood the language of animals, and could interpret their talk into song; but that made him none the wiser. Who acts: point, that, animals. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, with its dependency tree a
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, sentence 46

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Like the wise King Solomon, he understood the language of animals, and could interpret their talk into song; but that made him none the wiser.

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**Who acts:** point, that, animals · **What happens:** understand, interpret, make, talk · **To what, where:** language, talk, song, none, point

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (point, that, animals), 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:pg27200:143:46
# text = Like the wise King Solomon, he understood the language of animals, and could interpret their talk into song; but that made him none the wiser.
1	Like	like	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
4	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	Solomon	Solomon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	understood	understand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	interpret	interpret	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	talk	talk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	into	into	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	nsubj	_	_
24	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	24	obj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	wiser	wise	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **understand** | past | point | the language of animals |  |  |  | like the wise King Solomon | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer language=Stimulus |
| 2 | **interpret** | could | point *not said here* | animals's talk |  | song |  |  | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent talk=Theme |
| 3 | **make** | past | that | none | point |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset he=Beneficiary none=Product |
| 4 | **talk** |  | animals *= animal* |  |  |  |  |  | nom talk «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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