---
title: They were happy children in that home of their childhood, the beauti… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They were happy children in that home of their childhood, the beautiful and fragrant Tree of the Sun. Like all children, they loved to hear stories related to them, and their father told them many things which other children would not have understood; but these were as clever as most grownup people 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, sentence 53

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They were happy children in that home of their childhood, the beautiful and fragrant Tree of the Sun. Like all children, they loved to hear stories related to them, and their father told them many things which other children would not have understood; but these were as clever as most grownup people are among us.

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**Who acts:** sons, father, these, people · **What happens:** be, love, hear, tell, not understand · **To what, where:** happy children, home, stories, many things, sons, other children · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (sons, father, these, people), 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:pg27200:143:53
# text = They were happy children in that home of their childhood, the beautiful and fragrant Tree of the Sun. Like all children, they loved to hear stories related to them, and their father told them many things which other children would not have understood; but these were as clever as most grownup people are among us.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	childhood	childhood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
13	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	fragrant	fragrant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
16	Tree	Tree	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Sun.	Sunday	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	Like	like	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	22	det	_	_
22	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	loved	love	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
29	related	related	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
34	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	_
36	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
37	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	iobj	_	_
38	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obj	_	_
40	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	46	obj	_	_
41	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	nsubj:pass	_	_
43	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
44	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	46	advmod	_	_
45	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	aux	_	_
46	understood	understand	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	39	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	52	punct	_	_
48	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
49	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	52	nsubj	_	_
50	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	52	cop	_	_
51	as	as	ADV	RB	_	52	advmod	_	_
52	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	conj	_	_
53	as	as	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	55	amod	_	_
55	grownup	grownup	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	_
56	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	59	nsubj	_	_
57	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	59	cop	_	_
58	among	among	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
59	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	55	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | sons *= son* | happy children |  | that home of sons's childhood |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **love** | past | sons *= son* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **hear** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | sons *= son* *not said here* | stories |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer story=Stimulus |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | sons's father | many things | sons *= son* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient thing=Topic |
| 5 | **not** **understand** | would · perfect · passive |  | other children |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** | past | these |  |  |  |  | as most grownup; clever *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **is** | present | people |  |  |  |  | among us | tree rules |

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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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