---
title: First came a whole troop of drummers, beating their drums very cleve… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: First came a whole troop of drummers, beating their drums very cleverly; they were followed by life-guards, with longbows and crossbows. Who acts: whole troop, life guards. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What Happened to the Counsellor, with its dependency 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, What Happened to the Counsellor, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
First came a whole troop of drummers, beating their drums very cleverly; they were followed by life-guards, with longbows and crossbows.

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**Who acts:** whole troop, life guards · **What happens:** come, beat, follow · **To what, where:** drums, drum

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What Happened to the Counsellor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (whole troop, life guards), 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:pg27200:41:12
# text = First came a whole troop of drummers, beating their drums very cleverly; they were followed by life-guards, with longbows and crossbows.
1	First	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	2	advmod	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	troop	troop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	drummers	drummer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	beating	beat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	drums	drum	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	very	very	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	cleverly	cleverly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	followed	follow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	guards	guard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	longbows	longbow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	crossbows	crossbow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | a whole troop of drummers |  |  |  |  | with longbows and crossbows; first *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **beat** | gerund | a whole troop of drummers *not said here* | drummers's drums |  |  |  | cleverly *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location drum=Theme |
| 3 | **follow** | past · passive | life guards | drum |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |

<!-- .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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