---
title: "The nobleman's castle, perhaps, has fallen to decay," said the snai… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "The nobleman's castle, perhaps, has fallen to decay," said the snail-father, "or the burdock wood may have grown out. Who acts: snail father. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Happy Family, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Happy Family, sentence 26

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"The nobleman's castle, perhaps, has fallen to decay," said the snail-father, "or the burdock wood may have grown out.

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**Who acts:** snail father · **What happens:** fall, decay, say, grow out · **To what, where:** castle · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (snail father), 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:pg27200:48:26
# text = "The nobleman's castle, perhaps, has fallen to decay," said the snail-father, "or the burdock wood may have grown out.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	nobleman	nobleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	's	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	fallen	fall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	acl:relcl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	decay	decay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
17	snail	snail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
21	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	burdock	burdock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
26	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux	_	_
28	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	ccomp	_	_
29	out	out	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** *in a quote* | present · perfect |  | the nobleman's castle *not said here* |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **decay** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **grow out** *in a quote* | may · perfect | the snail father or the burdock wood |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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