---
title: They could all speak very well while they were outside in the street… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They could all speak very well while they were outside in the streets, but when they entered the palace gates, and saw the guards in silver uniforms, and the footmen in their golden livery on the staircase, and the great halls lighted up, they became quite confused. Who acts: people, halls. A senten
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Prince and Princess, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They could all speak very well while they were outside in the streets, but when they entered the palace gates, and saw the guards in silver uniforms, and the footmen in their golden livery on the staircase, and the great halls lighted up, they became quite confused.

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**Who acts:** people, halls · **What happens:** speak, be, enter, see, light up, become · **To what, where:** streets, palace gates, guards, silver uniforms, footmen · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Prince and Princess. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, halls), 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:pg27200:173:32
# text = They could all speak very well while they were outside in the streets, but when they entered the palace gates, and saw the guards in silver uniforms, and the footmen in their golden livery on the staircase, and the great halls lighted up, they became quite confused.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	all	all	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
7	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	outside	outside	ADV	RB	_	4	advcl	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	streets	street	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	entered	enter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	gates	gate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	guards	guard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	uniforms	uniform	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	footmen	footman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	nsubj:pass	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
36	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	livery	livery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	_
38	on	on	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	staircase	staircase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
44	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	halls	hall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	nsubj	_	_
46	lighted	light	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	conj	_	_
47	up	up	ADP	RP	_	46	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
49	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj	_	_
50	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
51	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	52	advmod	_	_
52	confused	confused	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | could | people |  |  |  |  | all, well *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | people |  |  | the streets |  | outside *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **enter** | past | people | the palace gates |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme gate=Destination |
| 4 | **see** | past | people *not said here* | the guards |  | silver uniforms |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer guard=Stimulus |
| 5 | **light up** | participle · passive |  | the footmen in people's golden livery on the staircase |  |  |  |  | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Product |
| 6 | **become** | past | halls *= hall* |  |  |  |  | confused *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: 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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