---
title: The wild swans sing at Christmas-time on the open water, while in th… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The wild swans sing at Christmas-time on the open water, while in the old hall the guests by the fireside gladly listen to songs and to old legends. Who acts: wild swans, guests. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Mo
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Moor Woman, sentence 45

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The wild swans sing at Christmas-time on the open water, while in the old hall the guests by the fireside gladly listen to songs and to old legends.

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**Who acts:** wild swans, guests · **What happens:** sing, listen · **To what, where:** open water, old hall

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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 (wild swans, guests), 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:pg27200:211:45
# text = The wild swans sing at Christmas-time on the open water, while in the old hall the guests by the fireside gladly listen to songs and to old legends.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	swans	swan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	sing	sing	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	Christmas	Christmas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	guests	guest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	fireside	fireside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	gladly	gladly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl:relcl	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	songs	song	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	legends	legend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sing** *speech: express* | present | the wild swans |  |  | the open water | time |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on water=Location |
| 2 | **listen** | infinitive | the guests by the fireside | the old hall *not said here* |  |  |  | to songs and old legends; gladly *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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