---
title: They were not elves dancing out there, as their old nurse had told h… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They were not elves dancing out there, as their old nurse had told him; he knew better--they were vapours which were warmer than the air, and that is why they rose. Who acts: meadows, truth, vapours, that. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Two Brothers, with i
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Two Brothers, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were not elves dancing out there, as their old nurse had told him; he knew better--they were vapours which were warmer than the air, and that is why they rose.

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**Who acts:** meadows, truth, vapours, that · **What happens:** not dance out, tell, know, be, rise · **To what, where:** old nurse, truth, vapours · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Two Brothers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (meadows, truth, vapours, that), 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:pg27200:199:22
# text = They were not elves dancing out there, as their old nurse had told him; he knew better--they were vapours which were warmer than the air, and that is why they rose.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	elves	elf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	dancing	dance	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	out	out	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	advcl	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
19	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	18	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	vapours	vapour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
24	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
26	warmer	warm	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	23	acl:relcl	_	_
27	than	than	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
32	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	34	nsubj	_	_
33	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
34	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	conj	_	_
35	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **dance out** | past · progressive | meadows *= meadow* |  |  | there |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · perfect · passive |  | meadows's old nurse | truth |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient he=Topic |
| 3 | **know** | past | truth |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is a** | past | meadows *= meadow* | vapours |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past | vapours |  |  |  |  | than the air; warm *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** | present | that |  |  |  |  | why *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **rise** | past | meadows *= meadow* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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