---
title: While she was speaking, one of the little singing-birds came tumblin… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: While she was speaking, one of the little singing-birds came tumbling head over heels from the roof into the yard. Who acts: crowing, one. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Portuguese Duck, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Portuguese Duck, sentence 10

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While she was speaking, one of the little singing-birds came tumbling head over heels from the roof into the yard.

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**Who acts:** crowing, one · **What happens:** speak, come, tumble · **To what, where:** head, heels · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Portuguese Duck. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (crowing, one), 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:pg27200:145:10
# text = While she was speaking, one of the little singing-birds came tumbling head over heels from the roof into the yard.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nsubj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
9	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
10	singing	singing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
13	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	tumbling	tumble	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	xcomp	_	_
15	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
16	over	over	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	heels	heel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
21	into	into	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	yard	yard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · progressive | crowing |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **come** | past | one of the little singing birds |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **tumble** | gerund | one of the little singing birds *not said here* | head |  | heels |  | from the roof; into the yard | vn mix-22.1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent head=Patient into yard=Co-Patient |

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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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