---
title: "The owl and the stork--but they said it was not worth mentioning, a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "The owl and the stork--but they said it was not worth mentioning, and so we won't mention it. Who acts: stork, owl, we. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Moor Woman, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Moor Woman, sentence 201

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"The owl and the stork--but they said it was not worth mentioning, and so we won't mention it.

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**Who acts:** stork, owl, we · **What happens:** say, not be, mention, not mention · **To what, where:** owl · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Moor Woman. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stork, owl, we), 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:pg27200:211:201
# text = "The owl and the stork--but they said it was not worth mentioning, and so we won't mention it.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	owl	owl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	stork	stork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	worth	worth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	ccomp	_	_
15	mentioning	mention	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
19	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	wo	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	mention	mention	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | stork |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | past | owl |  |  |  |  | worth *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **mention** *speech: other* *in a quote* | gerund | owl *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **mention** *speech: other* *in a quote* | future | we | owl |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

<!-- .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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