---
title: To-day the Will-o'-the-Wisps are in the town, and have taken the mat… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: To-day the Will-o'-the-Wisps are in the town, and have taken the matter in hand--but where and how? Who acts: Wisps, town. 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
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Moor Woman, sentence 207

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To-day the Will-o'-the-Wisps are in the town, and have taken the matter in hand--but where and how?

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**Who acts:** Wisps, town · **What happens:** be, take · **To what, where:** town, matter, hand

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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 (Wisps, town), 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:pg27200:211:207
# text = To-day the Will-o'-the-Wisps are in the town, and have taken the matter in hand--but where and how?
1	To	to	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	o	of	ADP	IN	Abbr=Yes	16	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	Wisps	wisp	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
13	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	20	conj	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the Wisps |  |  | the town |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | present · perfect | the town *not said here* | the matter |  | hand |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent matter=Value in hand=Location |

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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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