---
title: The raven sat there still, or it might be his son, which is the same… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The raven sat there still, or it might be his son, which is the same thing, and he said to them,-- Who acts: raven, town, son. 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 149

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The raven sat there still, or it might be his son, which is the same thing, and he said to them,--

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**Who acts:** raven, town, son · **What happens:** sit, be, say · **To what, where:** son, same thing, things · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (raven, town, son), 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:pg27200:214:149
# text = The raven sat there still, or it might be his son, which is the same thing, and he said to them,--
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	raven	raven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
5	still	still	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
9	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	cop	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | the raven |  |  | there | still |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | might | town | raven's son and the same thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | present | raven's son and the same thing | the same thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | raven |  | things *= thing* |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient |

<!-- .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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