---
title: On every tree hung three or four king's sons who had wooed the princ… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: On every tree hung three or four king's sons who had wooed the princess, but had not been able to guess the riddles she gave them. Who acts: three sons, princess. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 2, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 2, sentence 60

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On every tree hung three or four king's sons who had wooed the princess, but had not been able to guess the riddles she gave them.

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**Who acts:** three sons, princess · **What happens:** hang, woo, not be, guess, give · **To what, where:** three sons, tree, princess, riddles

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (three sons, princess), 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:pg27200:197:60
# text = On every tree hung three or four king's sons who had wooed the princess, but had not been able to guess the riddles she gave them.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	det	_	_
3	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
4	hung	hang	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
6	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	conj	_	_
8	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	wooed	woo	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	acl:relcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
20	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	cop	_	_
21	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	guess	guess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	riddles	riddle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
26	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
28	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hang** | past |  | king's three sons |  | every tree |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent son=Theme on tree=Destination |
| 2 | **woo** | past · perfect | king's three sons | the princess |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent princess=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **is** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **guess** | to-infinitive |  | the riddles |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent riddle=Theme |
| 5 | **give** | past | princess | the riddles *not said here* | riddles *= riddle* |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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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