---
title: Young and old, the whole city, were there; who was to warn them, if… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Young and old, the whole city, were there; who was to warn them, if no one noticed the sign, or knew what it meant as I did? Who acts: Young whole city, one, it, I. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Snowdrop, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Snowdrop, sentence 178

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Young and old, the whole city, were there; who was to warn them, if no one noticed the sign, or knew what it meant as I did?

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**Who acts:** Young whole city, one, it, I · **What happens:** be, notice, know, mean, do · **To what, where:** sign · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Snowdrop. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Young whole city, one, it, I), 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:pg27200:177:178
# text = Young and old, the whole city, were there; who was to warn them, if no one noticed the sign, or knew what it meant as I did?
1	Young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	warn	warn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	20	det	_	_
20	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	noticed	notice	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	sign	sign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
27	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	29	obj	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	ccomp	_	_
30	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
31	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the Young whole city |  |  |  |  | there *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | warn *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **notice** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | no one | the sign |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sign=Stimulus |
| 4 | **know** | past | no one *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **mean** | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **do** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «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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