---
title: Crows and choughs flew screaming over the old trees, and there were… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Crows and choughs flew screaming over the old trees, and there were crowds of birds; they did not seem to get fewer when any one shot among them, but seemed rather to increase. Who acts: Crows, crowds. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family, wi
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Crows and choughs flew screaming over the old trees, and there were crowds of birds; they did not seem to get fewer when any one shot among them, but seemed rather to increase.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Crows, crowds · **What happens:** fly, scream, be, not seem, get, seem · **To what, where:** old trees, one shot

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Crows, crowds), 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:pg27200:149:4
# text = Crows and choughs flew screaming over the old trees, and there were crowds of birds; they did not seem to get fewer when any one shot among them, but seemed rather to increase.
1	Crows	crow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	choughs	chough	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	conj	_	_
4	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	screaming	scream	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	xcomp	_	_
6	over	over	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	13	expl	_	_
13	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	crowds	crowd	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	seem	seem	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	fewer	few	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	23	xcomp	_	_
25	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
26	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	det	_	_
27	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nummod	_	_
28	shot	shot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl:unmarked	_	_
29	among	among	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
34	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	increase	increase	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past | Crows and choughs |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **scream** *speech: express* | gerund | Crows and choughs *not said here* |  |  | the old trees |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over tree=Location |
| 3 | **be** | past | crowds of birds |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **seem** | past · do-support | crowds *= crowd* |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 5 | **get** | to-infinitive | crowds *= crowd* *not said here* | any one shot |  |  |  | among trees *= tree*; few *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **seem** | past | Crows and choughs *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **increase** | to-infinitive | Crows and choughs *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn caused\_calibratable\_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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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