---
title: They wrote with diamond pencils on gold slates, and learnt their les… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They wrote with diamond pencils on gold slates, and learnt their lessons so quickly and read so easily that every one might know they were princes. Who acts: brothers, one. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 1, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 1, sentence 3

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They wrote with diamond pencils on gold slates, and learnt their lessons so quickly and read so easily that every one might know they were princes.

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**Who acts:** brothers, one · **What happens:** write, learn, read, know, be · **To what, where:** lessons, princes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brothers, one), 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:pg27200:208:3
# text = They wrote with diamond pencils on gold slates, and learnt their lessons so quickly and read so easily that every one might know they were princes.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	wrote	write	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	diamond	diamond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	pencils	pencil	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	slates	slate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	learnt	learn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	lessons	lesson	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	read	read	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	22	det	_	_
22	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
27	princes	prince	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** | past | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  | with diamond pencils on gold slates | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **learn** | past | brothers *= brother* *not said here* | brothers's lessons |  |  |  | quickly *property* | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lesson=Topic |
| 3 | **read** | present | brothers *= brother* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | easily *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **know** | might | every one |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is a** | past | brothers *= brother* | princes |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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