---
title: A person could walk up and down for a whole day through the streets,… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: A person could walk up and down for a whole day through the streets, and tire himself out with looking at the pictures; and then he would know all about what people lived in the houses, for they had hung out their shields or signs; and, as grandfather said, it was a very instructive thing, in a grea
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Storm Shakes the Shield, sentence 27

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A person could walk up and down for a whole day through the streets, and tire himself out with looking at the pictures; and then he would know all about what people lived in the houses, for they had hung out their shields or signs; and, as grandfather said, it was a very instructive thing, in a great town, to know at once who the inhabitants were.

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**Who acts:** person, people, grandfather, shield · **What happens:** walk, tire out, look, know, live, hang out · **To what, where:** streets, person, houses, people, instructive thing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Storm Shakes the Shield. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (person, people, grandfather, shield), 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:pg27200:184:27
# text = A person could walk up and down for a whole day through the streets, and tire himself out with looking at the pictures; and then he would know all about what people lived in the houses, for they had hung out their shields or signs; and, as grandfather said, it was a very instructive thing, in a great town, to know at once who the inhabitants were.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	up	up	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	down	down	ADV	RB	_	5	conj	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
12	through	through	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	streets	street	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	tire	tire	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
18	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obj	_	_
19	out	out	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
20	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	pictures	picture	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
27	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	30	advmod	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
31	all	all	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
32	about	about	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	30	obj	_	_
34	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nsubj	_	_
35	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	acl:relcl	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	houses	house	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
40	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	43	mark	_	_
41	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj:pass	_	_
42	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	aux	_	_
43	hung	hang	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	35	advcl	_	_
44	out	out	ADP	RP	_	43	compound:prt	_	_
45	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	46	nmod:poss	_	_
46	shields	shield	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	obj	_	_
47	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
48	signs	sign	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	61	punct	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	61	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
52	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	54	mark	_	_
53	grandfather	grandfather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	nsubj	_	_
54	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	61	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
56	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	61	nsubj	_	_
57	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	61	cop	_	_
58	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
59	very	very	ADV	RB	_	60	advmod	_	_
60	instructive	instructive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	61	amod	_	_
61	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	66	punct	_	_
63	in	in	ADP	IN	_	66	case	_	_
64	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	66	det	_	_
65	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	66	amod	_	_
66	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	61	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
67	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	69	punct	_	_
68	to	to	PART	TO	_	69	mark	_	_
69	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	66	parataxis	_	_
70	at	at	ADP	IN	_	71	case	_	_
71	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	69	obl	_	_
72	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	75	nsubj	_	_
73	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	74	det	_	_
74	inhabitants	inhabitant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	75	nsubj	_	_
75	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	69	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
76	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **walk** | could | a person |  |  | the streets | day |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through street=Trajectory |
| 2 | **tire out** | infinitive | a person *not said here* | person |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus himself=Experiencer |
| 3 | **look** | gerund | a person *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the pictures | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at picture=Theme |
| 4 | **know** | would | person |  |  |  | then |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 5 | **live** | past | people |  |  | the houses |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in house=Location |
| 6 | **hang out** | past · perfect · passive |  | people |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Patient shield=Result |
| 7 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | grandfather |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **is a** | past | shield | a instructive thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **know** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 10 | **be** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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