---
title: Crows and magpies fluttered about them, and cried, as if in contempt… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Crows and magpies fluttered about them, and cried, as if in contempt, 'Caw, caw, turned out of our nest--caw, caw,' as they had done in the wood at Borreby, when the trees were felled. Who acts: Crows, walls. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of the 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Story of the Wind, sentence 163

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Crows and magpies fluttered about them, and cried, as if in contempt, 'Caw, caw, turned out of our nest--caw, caw,' as they had done in the wood at Borreby, when the trees were felled.

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**Who acts:** Crows, walls · **What happens:** flutter, cry, turn out, do, fell · **To what, where:** nest, wood, trees

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of the Wind. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Crows, walls), 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:pg27200:212:163
# text = Crows and magpies fluttered about them, and cried, as if in contempt, 'Caw, caw, turned out of our nest--caw, caw,' as they had done in the wood at Borreby, when the trees were felled.
1	Crows	crow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	magpies	magpie	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	conj	_	_
4	fluttered	flutter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	about	about	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	contempt	contempt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	Caw	caw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	caw	caw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
22	out	out	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	caw	caw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	caw	caw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
32	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
33	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
39	at	at	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	Borreby	Borreby	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
42	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	46	advmod	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	nsubj:pass	_	_
45	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	aux:pass	_	_
46	felled	fell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **flutter** | past | Crows and magpies |  |  |  |  | about walls *= wall* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about they=Location |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past |  |  |  |  |  | as contempt | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **turn out** | past |  | our nest and caw and caw |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location nest=Theme |
| 4 | **do** | past · perfect | walls *= wall* |  |  | the wood |  | at Borreby | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **fell** | past · passive |  | the trees |  |  |  |  | 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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