---
title: A big old Father-Rat, with his tail bitten off, was relieving his fe… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: A big old Father-Rat, with his tail bitten off, was relieving his feelings in loud squeaks; and his family gave their tribute of concurrence to every word he said: Who acts: big old Father Rat, family. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Dryad, part 3, with 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Dryad, part 3, sentence 31

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A big old Father-Rat, with his tail bitten off, was relieving his feelings in loud squeaks; and his family gave their tribute of concurrence to every word he said:

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**Who acts:** big old Father Rat, family · **What happens:** bite off, relieve, give, say · **To what, where:** tail, feelings, loud squeaks, tribute, word · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Dryad, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (big old Father Rat, family), 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:pg27200:26:31
# text = A big old Father-Rat, with his tail bitten off, was relieving his feelings in loud squeaks; and his family gave their tribute of concurrence to every word he said:
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
2	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
4	Father	Father	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Rat	Rat	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	_
11	bitten	bite	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl	_	_
12	off	off	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	relieving	relieve	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	feelings	feeling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	loud	loud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	squeaks	squeak	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	tribute	tribute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	concurrence	concurrence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	32	det	_	_
32	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bite off** | participle |  | Such's tail *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **relieve** | past · progressive | a big old Father Rat | Such's feelings |  | loud squeaks |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus feeling=Experiencer |
| 3 | **give** | past | Such's family | rats's tribute of concurrence | every word |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent tribute=Theme to word=Recipient |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | family | every word *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic |

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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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