---
title: When they reached the farmyard, there was a great disturbance, two f… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: When they reached the farmyard, there was a great disturbance, two families were fighting for an eel's head, which, after all, was carried off by the cat. " Who acts: Quack, great disturbance, two families, cat. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckl
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, sentence 40

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When they reached the farmyard, there was a great disturbance, two families were fighting for an eel's head, which, after all, was carried off by the cat. "

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**Who acts:** Quack, great disturbance, two families, cat · **What happens:** reach, be, fight, carry off · **To what, where:** farmyard, great disturbance

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Quack, great disturbance, two families, cat), 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:pg27200:201:40
# text = When they reached the farmyard, there was a great disturbance, two families were fighting for an eel's head, which, after all, was carried off by the cat. "
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	farmyard	farmyard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
7	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	8	expl	_	_
8	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	disturbance	disturbance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	families	family	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	fighting	fight	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	acl	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	eel	eel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	's	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
23	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
25	after	after	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	carried	carry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	advcl	_	_
30	off	off	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	by	by	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	_
35	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | Quack | the farmyard |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent farmyard=Theme |
| 2 | **be** | past | a great disturbance |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **fight** | past · progressive | two families | a great disturbance *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent disturbance=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **carry off** | past · passive | the cat |  |  |  |  | for a eel's head | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=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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