---
title: The gnats were buzzing about and stinging, while the miserabili, out… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The gnats were buzzing about and stinging, while the miserabili, outside, moaned in their dreams. Who acts: gnats. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Best Thing the Goloshes Did, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Best Thing the Goloshes Did, sentence 51

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The gnats were buzzing about and stinging, while the miserabili, outside, moaned in their dreams.

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**Who acts:** gnats · **What happens:** buzz about, sting, moan, dream · **To what, where:** miserabili

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Best Thing the Goloshes Did. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gnats), 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:pg27200:45:51
# text = The gnats were buzzing about and stinging, while the miserabili, outside, moaned in their dreams.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	gnats	gnat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	buzzing	buzz	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	about	about	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	stinging	sting	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	miserabili	miserabili	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	outside	outside	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	moaned	moan	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	dreams	dream	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **buzz about** | past · progressive | the gnats |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **sting** | gerund | the gnats *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **moan** | participle |  | the miserabili *not said here* |  |  |  | in gnats's dreams | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in dream=Theme |
| 4 | **dream** |  | gnats *= gnat* |  |  |  |  |  | nom dream «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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