---
title: They lived quite retired and very happily; and as they had no childr… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They lived quite retired and very happily; and as they had no children of their own, they had adopted a little common snail, which they brought up as their own child. Who acts: snails. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Happy Family, with its dependency tre
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Happy Family, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They lived quite retired and very happily; and as they had no children of their own, they had adopted a little common snail, which they brought up as their own child.

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**Who acts:** snails · **What happens:** live, have, adopt, bring up · **To what, where:** children, snails, little common snail

<!-- .vabout -->
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), 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:pg27200:48:14
# text = They lived quite retired and very happily; and as they had no children of their own, they had adopted a little common snail, which they brought up as their own child.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	retired	retired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	happily	happily	ADV	RB	_	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
13	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	14	det	_	_
14	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	adopted	adopt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	advcl	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
24	common	common	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	snail	snail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	obj	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
30	up	up	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	as	as	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
33	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past | snails *= snail* |  |  |  |  | retired *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | snails *= snail* | no children of snails's own |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient |
| 3 | **adopt** | past · perfect · passive |  | snails *= snail* |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP NP»: subject=Theme snail=Attribute |
| 4 | **bring up** | past | snails *= snail* | a little common snail |  |  |  | as snails's own child | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent which=Patient |

<!-- .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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