---
title: The turnkey was speaking of his prisoners, especially of one who had… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The turnkey was speaking of his prisoners, especially of one who had uttered thoughtless words. Who acts: turnkey. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What the Fourth Mouse, Who Spoke Before the Third, Had to Tell, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, What the Fourth Mouse, Who Spoke Before the Third, Had to Tell, sentence 4

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The turnkey was speaking of his prisoners, especially of one who had uttered thoughtless words.

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**Who acts:** turnkey · **What happens:** speak, utter · **To what, where:** one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What the Fourth Mouse, Who Spoke Before the Third, Had to Tell. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (turnkey), 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:pg27200:181:4
# text = The turnkey was speaking of his prisoners, especially of one who had uttered thoughtless words.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	turnkey	turnkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	prisoners	prisoner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	especially	especially	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	uttered	utter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
15	thoughtless	thoughtless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · progressive | the turnkey |  |  |  |  | of turnkey's prisoners | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **utter** *speech: other* | past · perfect · passive |  | one |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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