---
title: It was still twilight, and at least an hour before sunrise, when the… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It was still twilight, and at least an hour before sunrise, when the eleven brothers stood at the castle gate, and demanded to be brought before the king. Who acts: thrush, eleven brothers. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 3, with its dep
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 3, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was still twilight, and at least an hour before sunrise, when the eleven brothers stood at the castle gate, and demanded to be brought before the king.

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**Who acts:** thrush, eleven brothers · **What happens:** be, stand, demand, bring · **To what, where:** castle gate · **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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thrush, eleven brothers), 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:pg27200:210:20
# text = It was still twilight, and at least an hour before sunrise, when the eleven brothers stood at the castle gate, and demanded to be brought before the king.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	still	still	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	twilight	twilight	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	10	nmod	_	_
9	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
11	before	before	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	sunrise	sunrise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	18	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	eleven	eleven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	demanded	demand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	ccomp	_	_
29	before	before	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | thrush |  |  |  | still; hour | twilight *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **stand** | past | the eleven brothers |  |  | the castle gate |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at gate=Location |
| 3 | **demand** *speech: request* | past | the eleven brothers *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn require-103-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Precondition |
| 4 | **bring** | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  | before the king |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: before king=Destination |

<!-- .note -->
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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