---
title: Oh, these children were indeed happy, but it was not to remain so al… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Oh, these children were indeed happy, but it was not to remain so always. Who acts: children, much. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 1, sentence 5

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Oh, these children were indeed happy, but it was not to remain so always.

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**Who acts:** children, much · **What happens:** be, not be

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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 (children, much), 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:pg27200:208:5
# text = Oh, these children were indeed happy, but it was not to remain so always.
1	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	remain	remain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | this children |  |  |  |  | happy, indeed *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past | much |  |  |  |  | always, remain *property* | 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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