---
title: There were little bells round the rim, and when the water began to b… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: There were little bells round the rim, and when the water began to boil in it, the bells began to play the old tune: Who acts: little bells, water, bells. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Swineherd, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Swineherd, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There were little bells round the rim, and when the water began to boil in it, the bells began to play the old tune:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little bells, water, bells · **What happens:** be, begin, boil, play · **To what, where:** old tune

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Swineherd. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little bells, water, bells), 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:pg27200:188:30
# text = There were little bells round the rim, and when the water began to boil in it, the bells began to play the old tune:
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	bells	bell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
5	round	round	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	rim	rim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	boil	boil	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	bells	bell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
21	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	tune	tune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | little bells round the rim |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the water |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **boil** | to-infinitive | the water *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in water | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V PP.result PP.instrument»: agent=Patient in it=Instrument |
| 4 | **begin** | past | the bells |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **play** | to-infinitive | the bells *not said here* | the old tune |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tune=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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