---
title: "The cock is crowing," said the old elfin maiden who acted as housek… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "The cock is crowing," said the old elfin maiden who acted as housekeeper; "now we must close the shutters, that the sun may not scorch us." Who acts: cock, old elfin maiden, we, sun. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Elfin Hill, with its dependency tree a
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Elfin Hill, sentence 110

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"The cock is crowing," said the old elfin maiden who acted as housekeeper; "now we must close the shutters, that the sun may not scorch us."

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**Who acts:** cock, old elfin maiden, we, sun · **What happens:** crow, say, act, close, not scorch · **To what, where:** shutters, us · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Elfin Hill. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cock, old elfin maiden, we, sun), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:31:110
# text = "The cock is crowing," said the old elfin maiden who acted as housekeeper; "now we must close the shutters, that the sun may not scorch us."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	cock	cock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	crowing	crow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	elfin	elfin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	acted	act	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	as	as	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	housekeeper	housekeeper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	_
20	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	close	close	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	shutters	shutter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
29	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	31	advmod	_	_
31	scorch	scorch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
32	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **crow** *in a quote* | present · progressive | the cock |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old elfin maiden |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **act** | past | the old elfin maiden |  |  |  |  | as housekeeper | vn masquerade-29.6-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent as housekeeper=Attribute |
| 4 | **close** *in a quote* | must | we | the shutters |  |  | now |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shutter=Patient |
| 5 | **not** **scorch** *in a quote* | may | the sun | us |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent we=Patient |

<!-- .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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