---
title: It seemed as though the birds knew that they were protected here, an… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It seemed as though the birds knew that they were protected here, and that no one must fire a gun at them. Who acts: It, birds, one. 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 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It seemed as though the birds knew that they were protected here, and that no one must fire a gun at them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, birds, one · **What happens:** seem, know, protect, fire · **To what, where:** fire gun, birds · **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 (It, birds, one), 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:pg27200:149:34
# text = It seemed as though the birds knew that they were protected here, and that no one must fire a gun at them.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	as	as	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	protected	protect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	ccomp	_	_
12	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	17	det	_	_
17	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	gun	gun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | It | a fire gun at birds |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **know** | past | the birds |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **protect** | past · passive |  | birds *= bird* |  | here |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **fire** | must | no one |  |  |  |  |  | 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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