---
title: "They are still crying, and yet there's nothing to cry about," said… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "They are still crying, and yet there's nothing to cry about," said the clerk, when he told the story. " Who acts: birds, nothing, clerk. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family, sentence 240

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"They are still crying, and yet there's nothing to cry about," said the clerk, when he told the story. "

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**Who acts:** birds, nothing, clerk · **What happens:** cry, be, say, tell · **To what, where:** story · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, nothing, clerk), 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:pg27200:149:240
# text = "They are still crying, and yet there's nothing to cry about," said the clerk, when he told the story. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	still	still	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	10	expl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	's	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
11	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	10	nsubj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	cry	cry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl	_	_
14	about	about	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	clerk	clerk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* *in a quote* | present · progressive | birds *= bird* |  |  |  | still |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **be** *in a quote* | present | nothing |  |  | there | yet |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | nothing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the clerk |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | clerk | the story |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Recipient |

<!-- .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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