---
title: One day a couple of street boys were paddling in the gutter, for the… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: One day a couple of street boys were paddling in the gutter, for they sometimes found old nails, farthings, and other treasures. Who acts: couple, boys. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Darning-needle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Darning-needle, sentence 51

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One day a couple of street boys were paddling in the gutter, for they sometimes found old nails, farthings, and other treasures.

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**Who acts:** couple, boys · **What happens:** paddle, find · **To what, where:** gutter, old nails

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Darning-needle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (couple, boys), 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:pg27200:21:51
# text = One day a couple of street boys were paddling in the gutter, for they sometimes found old nails, farthings, and other treasures.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	paddling	paddle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	gutter	gutter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	17	advmod	_	_
17	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
18	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	nails	nail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	farthings	farthing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	treasures	treasure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **paddle** | past · progressive | a couple of street boys |  |  | the gutter | day |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **find** | past | boys *= boy* | old nails and farthings and other treasures |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nail=Topic |

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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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