---
title: In a very few minutes all the huntsmen stood before the cave, and th… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: In a very few minutes all the huntsmen stood before the cave, and the handsomest of them was the king of the country. Who acts: huntsmen. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2, sentence 78

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In a very few minutes all the huntsmen stood before the cave, and the handsomest of them was the king of the country.

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**Who acts:** huntsmen · **What happens:** stand, be · **To what, where:** cave, handsomest king

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (huntsmen), 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:pg27200:209:78
# text = In a very few minutes all the huntsmen stood before the cave, and the handsomest of them was the king of the country.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
6	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	8	det:predet	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	huntsmen	huntsman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	before	before	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	handsomest	handsome	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	21	amod	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | all huntsmen |  |  | the cave | minute |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before cave=Location |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | the handsomest king |  |  |  | of the country | 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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