---
title: They questioned their father about the true, the beautiful, and the… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They questioned their father about the true, the beautiful, and the good, and he explained it to them in many ways. Who acts: others, father. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/143/60/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Philosopher's Stone](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/143/) / 60

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, sentence 60

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They questioned their father about the true, the beautiful, and the good, and he explained it to them in many ways.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** others, father · **What happens:** question, explain · **To what, where:** father, meaning, others, many ways

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (others, father), 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:pg27200:143:60
# text = They questioned their father about the true, the beautiful, and the good, and he explained it to them in many ways.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	questioned	question	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	explained	explain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	ways	way	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **question** *speech: other* | past | others *= other* |  | others's father |  |  |  | vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent father=Recipient |
| 2 | **explain** *speech: assert* | past | father | meaning | others *= other* | many ways |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Topic to they=Recipient |

<!-- .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 59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/143/59/)
- next →: [sentence 61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/143/61/)
- ↑ back to [The Philosopher's Stone](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/143/)