---
title: But the boys went on singing and pointing at the storks, and mocking… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But the boys went on singing and pointing at the storks, and mocking at them, excepting one of the boys whose name was Peter; he said it was a shame to make fun of animals, and would not join with them at all. Who acts: boys, name, Peter. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Storks, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the boys went on singing and pointing at the storks, and mocking at them, excepting one of the boys whose name was Peter; he said it was a shame to make fun of animals, and would not join with them at all.

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**Who acts:** boys, name, Peter · **What happens:** go, sing, point, mock, except, be · **To what, where:** one, Peter, shame, fun, all · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Storks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boys, name, Peter), 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:pg27200:183:12
# text = But the boys went on singing and pointing at the storks, and mocking at them, excepting one of the boys whose name was Peter; he said it was a shame to make fun of animals, and would not join with them at all.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
6	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	pointing	point	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	storks	stork	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	mocking	mock	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	excepting	except	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	conj	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
23	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
26	Peter	Peter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	expl	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	shame	shame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	ccomp	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	_
36	fun	fun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
41	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	43	aux	_	_
42	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	43	advmod	_	_
43	join	join	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	conj	_	_
44	with	with	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
45	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	obl	_	_
46	at	at	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | the boys |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | the boys *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **point** | gerund | the boys *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the storks | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **mock** | gerund | the boys *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at storks *= stork* | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **except** | gerund | the boys *not said here* | one of the boys |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **is a** | past | Peter's name | Peter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Peter |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **is a** | past |  | a shame |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **make** | to-infinitive | Peter *not said here* | fun of animals |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset fun=Product |
| 10 | **not** **join** | would | Peter *not said here* |  |  | all |  | with storks *= stork* | vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V PP.patient»: agent=Patient with they=Co-Patient |
| 11 | **name** |  | Peter |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=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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