---
title: Neither the cockchafer, nor the toad, nor the earth-worm, whom they… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Neither the cockchafer, nor the toad, nor the earth-worm, whom they questioned about it, would give them the least information; for none of their relations had ever been cooked or served on a silver dish. Who acts: snails, cockchafer. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. A
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Happy Family, sentence 11

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Neither the cockchafer, nor the toad, nor the earth-worm, whom they questioned about it, would give them the least information; for none of their relations had ever been cooked or served on a silver dish.

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**Who acts:** snails, cockchafer · **What happens:** question, give, cook, serve · **To what, where:** earth worm, least information, snails, silver dish

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Happy Family. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (snails, cockchafer), 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:pg27200:48:11
# text = Neither the cockchafer, nor the toad, nor the earth-worm, whom they questioned about it, would give them the least information; for none of their relations had ever been cooked or served on a silver dish.
1	Neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	3	cc:preconj	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	cockchafer	cockchafer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	7	cc	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	toad	toad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	13	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	worm	worm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	obj	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	questioned	question	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
18	about	about	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	iobj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	26	amod	_	_
26	information	information	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	36	punct	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	36	obl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	relations	relation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	_
33	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
34	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	36	advmod	_	_
35	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	36	aux:pass	_	_
36	cooked	cook	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	parataxis	_	_
37	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
38	served	serve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	36	conj	_	_
39	on	on	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
40	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	compound	_	_
42	dish	dish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **question** *speech: other* | past | snails *= snail* |  | the earth worm |  |  | about cockchafer | vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent whom=Recipient about it=Topic |
| 2 | **give** | would | the cockchafer | the least information | snails *= snail* |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient information=Theme |
| 3 | **cook** | past · perfect · passive |  |  |  |  | ever | for none | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: for none=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **serve** | participle |  |  |  | a silver dish |  |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: 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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