---
title: I should have the birds building their nests on my boughs, and when… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I should have the birds building their nests on my boughs, and when the wind blew, I should bow with stately dignity like my tall companions." Who acts: I, birds, wind. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Fir Tree, sentence 6

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I should have the birds building their nests on my boughs, and when the wind blew, I should bow with stately dignity like my tall companions."

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**Who acts:** I, birds, wind · **What happens:** have, build, blow, bow · **To what, where:** birds, nests, boughs

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, birds, wind), 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:pg27200:33:6
# text = I should have the birds building their nests on my boughs, and when the wind blew, I should bow with stately dignity like my tall companions."
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	building	build	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	nests	nest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	boughs	bough	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	blew	blow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	bow	bow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	stately	stately	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	dignity	dignity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	like	like	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	companions	companion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | should | I | the birds |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Patient |
| 2 | **build** | gerund | the birds *not said here* | birds's nests |  | my boughs |  |  | vn base-97.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent nest=Theme on bough=Source |
| 3 | **blow** | past | the wind |  |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **bow** | should | I |  |  |  |  | with stately dignity; like my tall companions | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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