---
title: He thought it was some young chicken that had strayed there, and was… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He thought it was some young chicken that had strayed there, and was raising cries of distress; but it was the General's little daughter, decked out in lace and finery. Who acts: George, piping, young chicken, distress. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Po
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He thought it was some young chicken that had strayed there, and was raising cries of distress; but it was the General's little daughter, decked out in lace and finery.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** George, piping, young chicken, distress · **What happens:** think, be, stray, raise, deck out, cry · **To what, where:** young chicken, cries, little daughter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (George, piping, young chicken, distress), 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:pg27200:146:15
# text = He thought it was some young chicken that had strayed there, and was raising cries of distress; but it was the General's little daughter, decked out in lace and finery.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	7	det	_	_
6	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	chicken	chicken	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	strayed	stray	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	raising	raise	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
16	cries	cry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	distress	distress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	General	General	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	's	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	decked	deck	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	acl	_	_
30	out	out	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	lace	lace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	finery	finery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | George |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | piping | some young chicken |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **stray** | past · perfect | some young chicken |  |  | there |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **raise** | past · progressive | George *not said here* | cries of distress |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cry=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | past | piping | the General's little daughter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **deck out** | participle |  | the General's little daughter *not said here* |  |  |  | in lace and finery | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent in lace=Theme |
| 7 | **cry** |  | distress |  |  |  |  |  | nom cry «communication intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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