---
title: They spoke not a word, for they were thinking about the fine extempo… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They spoke not a word, for they were thinking about the fine extempore speeches they would have to bring out, and these had to be cleverly prepared beforehand. Who acts: brothers, fine extempore speeches, these. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, An Old Story T
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, An Old Story Told Anew, sentence 34

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They spoke not a word, for they were thinking about the fine extempore speeches they would have to bring out, and these had to be cleverly prepared beforehand.

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**Who acts:** brothers, fine extempore speeches, these · **What happens:** not speak, think, have, bring out, be · **To what, where:** word, fine extempore speeches · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, An Old Story Told Anew. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brothers, fine extempore speeches, these), 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:pg27200:28:34
# text = They spoke not a word, for they were thinking about the fine extempore speeches they would have to bring out, and these had to be cleverly prepared beforehand.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
11	about	about	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	extempore	extempore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	speeches	speech	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl:relcl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	out	out	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	25	nsubj	_	_
25	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	cop	_	_
28	cleverly	cleverly	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	prepared	prepared	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	advcl	_	_
30	beforehand	beforehand	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **speak** *speech: other* | past | brothers *= brother* | a word |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past · progressive | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  | about the fine extempore speeches | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about speech=Topic |
| 3 | **have** | would | brothers *= brother* | the fine extempore speeches *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **bring out** | to-infinitive | the fine extempore speeches *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **have** | past | these |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** | to-infinitive | these *not said here* |  |  |  |  | beforehand, cleverly, prepared *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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