---
title: All besides was a scream, quite as unintelligible as the warbling of… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: All besides was a scream, quite as unintelligible as the warbling of the canary-bird, excepting to the clerk, who being now a bird, could understand his comrades very well. Who acts: besides, scream, clerk. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Clerk's Transfo
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Clerk's Transformation, sentence 110

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All besides was a scream, quite as unintelligible as the warbling of the canary-bird, excepting to the clerk, who being now a bird, could understand his comrades very well.

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**Who acts:** besides, scream, clerk · **What happens:** be, except, understand · **To what, where:** scream, bird, comrades

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Clerk's Transformation. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (besides, scream, clerk), 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:pg27200:44:110
# text = All besides was a scream, quite as unintelligible as the warbling of the canary-bird, excepting to the clerk, who being now a bird, could understand his comrades very well.
1	All	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	besides	beside	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	scream	scream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	as	as	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	unintelligible	unintelligible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	warbling	warbling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	canary	canary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	excepting	except	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	clerk	clerk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
25	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	cop	_	_
26	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	understand	understand	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	comrades	comrade	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	_
34	very	very	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | all besides | a scream |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **except** | gerund | a scream *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the clerk and a bird | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | gerund | the clerk and a bird | a bird |  |  | now |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **understand** | could |  | speech's comrades |  |  |  | well *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer comrade=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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