---
title: "No," said the fence-rail, who had been a witness at the distributio… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "No," said the fence-rail, who had been a witness at the distribution of prizes; "there should be some consideration for industry and perseverance. Who acts: fence rail. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Races, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Races, sentence 4

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"No," said the fence-rail, who had been a witness at the distribution of prizes; "there should be some consideration for industry and perseverance.

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**Who acts:** fence rail · **What happens:** say, be, distribute · **To what, where:** witness, distribution, consideration, prizes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Races. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fence rail), 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:pg27200:153:4
# text = "No," said the fence-rail, who had been a witness at the distribution of prizes; "there should be some consideration for industry and perseverance.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	fence	fence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	rail	rail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
13	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	cop	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	witness	witness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	distribution	distribution	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	prizes	prize	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
22	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	25	expl	_	_
24	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	cop	_	_
26	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	27	det	_	_
27	consideration	consideration	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	ccomp	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	industry	industry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	perseverance	perseverance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the fence rail |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past · perfect | the fence rail | a witness |  | the distribution of prizes |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | some consideration |  |  |  | for industry and perseverance | tree rules |
| 4 | **distribute** |  |  | prizes |  |  |  |  | nom distribution «cognition transitive»: of=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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