---
title: "Ah!" he sighed mournfully, as he gazed at the birds singing merrily… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Ah!" he sighed mournfully, as he gazed at the birds singing merrily, or hopping from branch to branch, "they are much better off than I. Flying is a glorious power. Who acts: strength, birds, I. Flying. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Clerk's Transforma
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Clerk's Transformation, sentence 78

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"Ah!" he sighed mournfully, as he gazed at the birds singing merrily, or hopping from branch to branch, "they are much better off than I. Flying is a glorious power.

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**Who acts:** strength, birds, I. Flying · **What happens:** sigh, gaze, sing, hop, be · **To what, where:** branch · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (strength, birds, I. Flying), 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:pg27200:44:78
# text = "Ah!" he sighed mournfully, as he gazed at the birds singing merrily, or hopping from branch to branch, "they are much better off than I. Flying is a glorious power.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	sighed	sigh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	mournfully	mournfully	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	gazed	gaze	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
15	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	acl	_	_
16	merrily	merrily	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	hopping	hop	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	conj	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	much	much	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	11	conj	_	_
30	off	off	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	than	than	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
32	I.	I.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	Flying	Fly	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
34	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	glorious	glorious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sigh** | past | strength |  |  |  |  | mournfully *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **gaze** | past | strength |  |  |  |  | at the birds | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at bird=Theme |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | the birds *not said here* |  |  |  |  | merrily *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **hop** | gerund | the birds *not said here* |  |  | branch |  | to branch | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to branch=Destination |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | present | birds *= bird* |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** *in a quote* | present | I. Flying |  |  |  |  | than a glorious power | 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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