---
title: He had been born old, and did not at all resemble the birds flying i… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He had been born old, and did not at all resemble the birds flying in the air--the sparrows, and the swallows; no, he despised them, these mean little piping birds, these common whistlers. Who acts: birds, yard. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Farm-yard 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Farm-yard Cock and the Weather-cock, sentence 18

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He had been born old, and did not at all resemble the birds flying in the air--the sparrows, and the swallows; no, he despised them, these mean little piping birds, these common whistlers.

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**Who acts:** birds, yard · **What happens:** bear, not resemble, fly, despise · **To what, where:** yard, birds, all, air

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Farm-yard Cock and the Weather-cock. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (birds, yard), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg27200:1271`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg27200:19:18
# text = He had been born old, and did not at all resemble the birds flying in the air--the sparrows, and the swallows; no, he despised them, these mean little piping birds, these common whistlers.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	12	obl	_	_
12	resemble	resemble	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	acl	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	appos	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	swallows	swallow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	conj	_	_
26	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
27	no	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	30	discourse	_	_
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	despised	despise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
33	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	37	det	_	_
34	mean	mean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
35	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
36	piping	piping	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	appos	_	_
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
39	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	41	det	_	_
40	common	common	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	whistlers	whistler	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	appos	_	_
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bear** | past · perfect · passive |  | yard |  |  |  | old *property* | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **not** **resemble** | past · do-support |  | the birds |  | all |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **fly** | gerund | the birds *not said here* |  |  | the air |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in air=Location |
| 4 | **despise** | past | yard | birds *= bird* |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |

<!-- .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:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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