---
title: He ought to moderate his voice, like those little birds who are sing… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He ought to moderate his voice, like those little birds who are singing in the lime-trees over there in our neighbor's garden, but that is an art only acquired in polite society. Who acts: drake, little birds, that. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Portug
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Portuguese Duck, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He ought to moderate his voice, like those little birds who are singing in the lime-trees over there in our neighbor's garden, but that is an art only acquired in polite society.

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**Who acts:** drake, little birds, that · **What happens:** moderate, sing, be, acquire · **To what, where:** voice, lime trees, art, polite society

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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 (drake, little birds, that), 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:pg27200:145:6
# text = He ought to moderate his voice, like those little birds who are singing in the lime-trees over there in our neighbor's garden, but that is an art only acquired in polite society.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	moderate	moderate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
13	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	acl:relcl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
17	lime	lime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
20	over	over	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	neighbor	neighbor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	's	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
28	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
29	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	32	nsubj	_	_
30	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
31	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	art	art	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
33	only	only	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	acquired	acquire	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	32	acl	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	polite	polite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	society	society	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **moderate** | ought | drake | drake's voice |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent voice=Patient |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | present · progressive | that little birds |  |  | the lime trees; there |  | in our neighbor's garden | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in tree=Location |
| 3 | **is a** | present | that | a art |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **acquire** | participle |  | a art *not said here* |  | polite society |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |

<!-- .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.

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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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