---
title: The young people amused themselves on the lawn, and played at ball;… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The young people amused themselves on the lawn, and played at ball; they wandered among the flowers, and each of the young girls broke off a flower, and fastened it in a young gentleman's buttonhole. Who acts: young people, people, each. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Thistle's Experiences, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The young people amused themselves on the lawn, and played at ball; they wandered among the flowers, and each of the young girls broke off a flower, and fastened it in a young gentleman's buttonhole.

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**Who acts:** young people, people, each · **What happens:** amuse, play, wander, break off, fasten · **To what, where:** people, lawn, ball, flowers, flower, buttonhole

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Thistle's Experiences. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (young people, people, each), 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:pg27200:189:8
# text = The young people amused themselves on the lawn, and played at ball; they wandered among the flowers, and each of the young girls broke off a flower, and fastened it in a young gentleman's buttonhole.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	amused	amuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	obj	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	lawn	lawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	played	play	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	wandered	wander	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
17	among	among	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
22	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	27	nsubj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
27	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
28	off	off	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	flower	flower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	fastened	fasten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	's	's	PART	POS	_	38	case	_	_
40	buttonhole	buttonhole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **amuse** | past | the young people | people |  | the lawn |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus themselves=Experiencer |
| 2 | **play** | past | the young people *not said here* |  |  | ball |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **wander** | past | people |  |  | the flowers |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme among flower=Trajectory |
| 4 | **break off** | past | each | a flower |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer flower=Patient |
| 5 | **fasten** | past | people *not said here* | ball |  | a young gentleman's buttonhole |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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.

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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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