---
title: They searched for food in the path which had been swept, but there w… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They searched for food in the path which had been swept, but there was very little for them, and they were terribly cold. " Who acts: sparrows. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of the Year, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Story of the Year, sentence 11

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They searched for food in the path which had been swept, but there was very little for them, and they were terribly cold. "

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**Who acts:** sparrows · **What happens:** search, sweep, be · **To what, where:** path

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of the Year. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sparrows), 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:pg27200:214:11
# text = They searched for food in the path which had been swept, but there was very little for them, and they were terribly cold. "
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	searched	search	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	for	for	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	swept	sweep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	15	expl	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	very	very	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	terribly	terribly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	_
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **search** | past | sparrows *= sparrow* |  |  | the path |  | for food | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.theme NP.location»: agent=Agent for food=Theme in path=Location |
| 2 | **sweep** | past · perfect · passive |  | the path |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Trajectory |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | for sparrows *= sparrow*; little *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | sparrows *= sparrow* |  |  |  |  | cold, terribly *property* | tree rules |

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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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