--- title: We brothers," said the eldest, "fly about as wild swans, so long as… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics description: We brothers," said the eldest, "fly about as wild swans, so long as the sun is in the sky; but as soon as it sinks behind the hills, we recover our human shape. Who acts: We, brothers, sun, sky. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 1, with it --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/208/93/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Wild Swans, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/208/) / 93 # Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 1, sentence 93 We brothers," said the eldest, "fly about as wild swans, so long as the sun is in the sky; but as soon as it sinks behind the hills, we recover our human shape. **Who acts:** We, brothers, sun, sky · **What happens:** brother, say, fly, be, sink, recover · **To what, where:** hills, human shape · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (We, brothers, sun, sky), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg27200:208:93 # text = We brothers," said the eldest, "fly about as wild swans, so long as the sun is in the sky; but as soon as it sinks behind the hills, we recover our human shape. 1 We we PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 2 nsubj _ _ 2 brothers brother NOUN NNS Number=Plur 5 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 3 , , PUNCT , _ 2 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 4 " " PUNCT '' _ 2 punct _ _ 5 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 6 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 7 eldest eld ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 5 ccomp _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 10 punct _ _ 9 " " PUNCT `` _ 10 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 10 fly fly VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 ccomp _ _ 11 about about ADV RB _ 10 advmod _ _ 12 as as ADP IN _ 14 case _ _ 13 wild wild ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 14 amod _ _ 14 swans swan NOUN NNS Number=Plur 10 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 15 , , PUNCT , _ 17 punct _ _ 16 so so ADV RB _ 17 advmod _ _ 17 long long ADV RB Degree=Pos 10 conj _ _ 18 as as ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 19 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 20 sun sun NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 nsubj _ _ 21 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 24 cop _ _ 22 in in ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 23 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 24 sky sky NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 25 ; ; PUNCT : _ 31 punct _ _ 26 but but CCONJ CC _ 31 cc _ _ 27 as as ADV RB _ 28 advmod _ _ 28 soon soon ADV RB Degree=Pos 31 advmod _ _ 29 as as SCONJ IN _ 31 mark _ _ 30 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 31 nsubj _ _ 31 sinks sink VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 parataxis _ _ 32 behind behind ADP IN _ 34 case _ _ 33 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 34 det _ _ 34 hills hill NOUN NNS Number=Plur 31 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 35 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 36 we we PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 37 nsubj _ _ 37 recover recover VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 31 conj _ _ 38 our our PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 40 nmod:poss _ _ 39 human human ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 40 amod _ _ 40 shape shape NOUN NN Number=Sing 37 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 41 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **brother** | | We | | | | | | tree rules | | 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | brothers | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 3 | **fly** | present | | | | | | as wild swans; about *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **is** | present | the sun | | | | | as the sky | tree rules | | 5 | **sink** | present | sky | | | the hills | | soon *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | | 6 | **recover** | present | we | our human shape | | | | | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shape=Theme | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 92](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/208/92/) - next →: [sentence 94](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/208/94/) - ↑ back to [The Wild Swans, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/208/)