---
title: Perhaps they talked of him who, as a little boy, had taken away thei… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Perhaps they talked of him who, as a little boy, had taken away their eggs and their young; of the peasant's son, who had to wear an iron garter, and of the noble young lady, who ended by being a ferryman's wife. Who acts: birds, son, noble young lady. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian An
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family, sentence 237

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Perhaps they talked of him who, as a little boy, had taken away their eggs and their young; of the peasant's son, who had to wear an iron garter, and of the noble young lady, who ended by being a ferryman's wife.

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**Who acts:** birds, son, noble young lady · **What happens:** talk, take away, have, wear, end, be · **To what, where:** eggs, iron garter

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (birds, son, noble young lady), 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:pg27200:149:237
# text = Perhaps they talked of him who, as a little boy, had taken away their eggs and their young; of the peasant's son, who had to wear an iron garter, and of the noble young lady, who ended by being a ferryman's wife.
1	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	as	as	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	_
15	away	away	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	eggs	egg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	young	young	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	peasant	peasant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	's	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
29	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	wear	wear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	iron	iron	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	garter	garter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
39	noble	noble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
40	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
43	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	44	nsubj	_	_
44	ended	end	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	acl:relcl	_	_
45	by	by	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
46	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	50	cop	_	_
47	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	ferryman	ferryman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	's	's	PART	POS	_	48	case	_	_
50	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past | birds *= bird* |  |  |  |  | of Jutland; as a little boy; perhaps *property* | vn compel-59.1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent who=Patient |
| 2 | **take away** | past · perfect |  | birds's eggs |  |  |  | away *property* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent egg=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | past | the peasant's son |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **wear** | to-infinitive | the peasant's son *not said here* | a iron garter |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent garter=Theme |
| 5 | **end** | past | the noble young lady |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 6 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | by a ferryman's wife | tree rules |

<!-- .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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