---
title: The great white snails, which grand people in olden times used to ha… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The great white snails, which grand people in olden times used to have made into fricassees; and when they had eaten them, they would say, "O, what a delicious dish!" for these people really thought them good; and these snails lived on burdock-leaves, and for them the burdock was planted. Who acts: 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Happy Family, sentence 4

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The great white snails, which grand people in olden times used to have made into fricassees; and when they had eaten them, they would say, "O, what a delicious dish!" for these people really thought them good; and these snails lived on burdock-leaves, and for them the burdock was planted.

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**Who acts:** great white snails, snails · **What happens:** people, use, make, eat, say, dish · **To what, where:** fricassees, people, snails, burdock leaves, burdock · **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 (great white snails, snails), 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:pg27200:48:4
# text = The great white snails, which grand people in olden times used to have made into fricassees; and when they had eaten them, they would say, "O, what a delicious dish!" for these people really thought them good; and these snails lived on burdock-leaves, and for them the burdock was planted.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	snails	snail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
7	grand	grand	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	olden	olden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
12	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	aux	_	_
15	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	xcomp	_	_
16	into	into	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	fricassees	fricassee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
20	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	23	mark	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	28	advcl	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
30	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	36	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
33	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	36	nsubj	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	delicious	delicious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	dish	dish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	36	punct	_	_
39	for	for	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	41	det	_	_
41	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	obl	_	_
42	really	really	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
43	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
44	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	obj	_	_
45	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
48	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	49	det	_	_
49	snails	snail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	nsubj	_	_
50	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
51	on	on	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
52	burdock	burdock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	52	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	62	punct	_	_
56	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	62	cc	_	_
57	for	for	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
58	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	62	obl	_	_
59	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	60	det	_	_
60	burdock	burdock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	62	nsubj:pass	_	_
61	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	62	aux:pass	_	_
62	planted	plant	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **people** |  |  |  |  |  | time |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **use** | past | the great white snails |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **make** | to-infinitive · perfect | the great white snails *not said here* |  |  | fricassees |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP.material PP.product»: agent=Agent into fricassee=Product |
| 4 | **eat** | past · perfect | snails *= snail* | people |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 5 | **say** *speech: express* | would | snails *= snail* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **dish** *in a quote* |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **think** *speech: other* | past | snails *= snail* *not said here* | snails *= snail* |  |  |  | for this people; good *property* | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot they=Theme |
| 8 | **live** | past | this snails |  |  | burdock leaves |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on leaf=Location |
| 9 | **plant** | past · passive |  | the burdock |  |  |  | for snails *= snail* | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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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