---
title: They are called Pyramids, and are older than a stork could imagine;… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They are called Pyramids, and are older than a stork could imagine; and in that country, there is a river that overflows its banks, and then goes back, leaving nothing but mire; there we can walk about, and eat frogs in abundance." Who acts: stork, river, we. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Chris
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/183/29/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Storks](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/183/) / 29

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Storks, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They are called Pyramids, and are older than a stork could imagine; and in that country, there is a river that overflows its banks, and then goes back, leaving nothing but mire; there we can walk about, and eat frogs in abundance."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** stork, river, we · **What happens:** call, be, imagine, overflow, go back, leave · **To what, where:** mountains, banks, nothing, country, frogs, abundance · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (stork, river, we), 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:pg27200:183:29
# text = They are called Pyramids, and are older than a stork could imagine; and in that country, there is a river that overflows its banks, and then goes back, leaving nothing but mire; there we can walk about, and eat frogs in abundance."
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	Pyramids	pyramid	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	parataxis	_	_
9	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	stork	stork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	imagine	imagine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	21	expl	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	42	cop	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
25	overflows	overflow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
26	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	banks	bank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	31	advmod	_	_
31	goes	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
32	back	back	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
34	leaving	leave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	advcl	_	_
35	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	34	obj	_	_
36	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	mire	mire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
39	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	42	expl	_	_
40	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
41	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
42	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
43	about	about	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
46	eat	eat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
47	frogs	frog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	obj	_	_
48	in	in	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
49	abundance	abundance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** *speech: assert* | present · passive |  | mountains *= mountain* |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | old *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **imagine** | could | a stork |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **overflow** | present | a river | river's banks |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **go back** | present | a river *not said here* |  |  |  | then |  | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **leave** | gerund | a river *not said here* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Theme |
| 7 | **is** | can · present | we |  |  | that country; there |  | about, walk *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **eat** | present |  | frogs |  | abundance |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent frog=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/183/28/)
- next →: [sentence 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/183/30/)
- ↑ back to [The Storks](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/183/)