---
title: Psalms were sung, and a few of the old people shed tears; with this… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Psalms were sung, and a few of the old people shed tears; with this exception, the guests were cheerful enough, it seemed to Jurgen, and there was plenty to eat and drink. Who acts: few, guests, it, plenty. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sa
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 2, sentence 89

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Psalms were sung, and a few of the old people shed tears; with this exception, the guests were cheerful enough, it seemed to Jurgen, and there was plenty to eat and drink.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** few, guests, it, plenty · **What happens:** sing, shed, be, seem, eat, drink · **To what, where:** Psalms, tears, Jurgen

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (few, guests, it, plenty), 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:pg27200:159:89
# text = Psalms were sung, and a few of the old people shed tears; with this exception, the guests were cheerful enough, it seemed to Jurgen, and there was plenty to eat and drink.
1	Psalms	psalm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	sung	sing	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	nsubj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	_
12	shed	shed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
13	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
17	exception	exception	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	guests	guest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	cheerful	cheerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	_
23	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	Jurgen	Jurgen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	32	expl	_	_
32	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
33	plenty	plenty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	acl	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sing** *speech: express* | past · passive |  | Psalms |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **shed** | past | a few of the old people | tears |  |  |  |  | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tear=Source |
| 3 | **is** | past | the guests |  |  |  |  | with this exception; cheerful, enough *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **seem** | past | it |  | Jurgen |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **be** | past | plenty |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **eat** | to-infinitive | plenty *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **drink** | infinitive | plenty *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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