---
title: I knew not what, till at last one of them espied me and came towards… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I knew not what, till at last one of them espied me and came towards me, and the foremost pointed to my sausage skewer, and said, 'There, that is just what we want; see, it is pointed at the top; is it not capital?' and the longer he looked at my pilgrim's staff, the more delighted he became. ' Who 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, What the First Little Mouse Saw and Heard on Her Travels, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I knew not what, till at last one of them espied me and came towards me, and the foremost pointed to my sausage skewer, and said, 'There, that is just what we want; see, it is pointed at the top; is it not capital?' and the longer he looked at my pilgrim's staff, the more delighted he became. '

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, that, we, skewer, problem · **What happens:** not know, espy, come, point, say, be · **To what, where:** me, sausage skewer, skewer, top, capital · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What the First Little Mouse Saw and Heard on Her Travels. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, that, we, skewer), 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:pg27200:179:30
# text = I knew not what, till at last one of them espied me and came towards me, and the foremost pointed to my sausage skewer, and said, 'There, that is just what we want; see, it is pointed at the top; is it not capital?' and the longer he looked at my pilgrim's staff, the more delighted he became. '
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
6	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	_
12	espied	espy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
13	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
16	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	foremost	foremost	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
22	pointed	point	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	acl	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	sausage	sausage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	skewer	skewer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
31	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	37	expl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
34	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	37	nsubj	_	_
35	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
36	just	just	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	29	parataxis	_	_
38	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
41	see	see	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
43	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj:pass	_	_
44	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	45	aux:pass	_	_
45	pointed	point	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	41	ccomp	_	_
46	at	at	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
50	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	53	cop	_	_
51	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj	_	_
52	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	53	advmod	_	_
53	capital	capital	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	53	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	53	punct	_	_
56	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	60	cc	_	_
57	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	58	det	_	_
58	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	60	advmod	_	_
59	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	60	nsubj	_	_
60	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
61	at	at	ADP	IN	_	65	case	_	_
62	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	63	nmod:poss	_	_
63	pilgrim	pilgrim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	65	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	's	's	PART	POS	_	63	case	_	_
65	staff	staff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	60	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	69	punct	_	_
67	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	69	det	_	_
68	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	69	advmod	_	_
69	delighted	delighted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	65	acl:relcl	_	_
70	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	71	nsubj	_	_
71	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	69	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
72	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
73	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 2 | **espy** | past |  | me |  |  |  | at last one of people | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer i=Stimulus |
| 3 | **come** | past |  |  |  |  |  | towards me | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme towards i=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **point** | participle |  |  | my sausage skewer |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to skewer=Recipient |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is a** | present | that |  |  | there |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **want** | present | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 8 | **see** | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 9 | **point** | present · passive |  | skewer |  | the top |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 10 | **not** **is a** | present | skewer | capital |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 11 | **look** | past | problem |  |  |  |  | at my pilgrim's staff; long *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at staff=Theme |
| 12 | **become** | past | problem |  |  |  |  |  | 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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