---
title: The tin soldiers rattled in their box; they wanted to get out and jo… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The tin soldiers rattled in their box; they wanted to get out and join the amusements, but they could not open the lid. Who acts: tin soldiers, soldiers. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Brave Tin Soldier, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Brave Tin Soldier, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The tin soldiers rattled in their box; they wanted to get out and join the amusements, but they could not open the lid.

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**Who acts:** tin soldiers, soldiers · **What happens:** rattle, want, get out, join, not open · **To what, where:** tin soldiers, box, amusements, lid

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Brave Tin Soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tin soldiers, soldiers), 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:pg27200:192:18
# text = The tin soldiers rattled in their box; they wanted to get out and join the amusements, but they could not open the lid.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	tin	tin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
4	rattled	rattle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	out	out	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	join	join	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	amusements	amusement	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	lid	lid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rattle** | participle |  | the tin soldiers *not said here* |  | soldiers's box |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in box=Location |
| 2 | **want** | past | the tin soldiers |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **get out** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the tin soldiers *not said here* |  |  |  |  | out *property* | vn withdraw-82-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **join** | infinitive | the tin soldiers *not said here* | the amusements |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent amusement=Patient |
| 5 | **not** **open** | could | soldiers *= soldier* | the lid |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location lid=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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