---
title: They talked of balls and theatres, of diplomatic missions, of the go… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They talked of balls and theatres, of diplomatic missions, of the government of empires and nations; and then they spoke of talent, native talent; and so the discourse turned upon the young architect. Who acts: Flowers, discourse. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Ander
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/148/31/)

<!-- 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 Porter's Son, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/148/) / 31

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 3, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They talked of balls and theatres, of diplomatic missions, of the government of empires and nations; and then they spoke of talent, native talent; and so the discourse turned upon the young architect.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Flowers, discourse · **What happens:** talk, speak, turn · **To what, where:** young architect · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Flowers, discourse), 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:pg27200:148:31
# text = They talked of balls and theatres, of diplomatic missions, of the government of empires and nations; and then they spoke of talent, native talent; and so the discourse turned upon the young architect.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	balls	ball	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	theatres	theatre	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	diplomatic	diplomatic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	missions	mission	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	government	government	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	empires	empire	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	nations	nation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	23	advmod	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	talent	talent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	native	native	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	talent	talent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	34	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
31	so	so	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	discourse	discourse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
34	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
35	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	architect	architect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past | Flowers *= flower* |  |  |  |  | of balls and theatres and diplomatic missions; of the government of empires and nations | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | Flowers *= flower* |  |  |  | then | of talent and native talent | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **turn** | past | the discourse |  |  | the young architect |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme upon architect=Trajectory |

<!-- .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 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/148/30/)
- next →: [sentence 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/148/32/)
- ↑ back to [The Porter's Son, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/148/)