---
title: Then they gave the whole burdock forest to the young snails as an in… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then they gave the whole burdock forest to the young snails as an inheritance, and repeated what they had so often said, that it was the finest place in the world, and that if they led upright and honorable lives, and their family increased, they and their children might some day be taken to the nob
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Happy Family, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then they gave the whole burdock forest to the young snails as an inheritance, and repeated what they had so often said, that it was the finest place in the world, and that if they led upright and honorable lives, and their family increased, they and their children might some day be taken to the nobleman's palace, to be boiled black, and laid on a silver dish.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** snails, inheritance, family · **What happens:** give, repeat, say, be, lead, increase · **To what, where:** whole burdock forest, young snails, finest place, world, children, palace · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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, inheritance, family), 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:pg27200:48:52
# text = Then they gave the whole burdock forest to the young snails as an inheritance, and repeated what they had so often said, that it was the finest place in the world, and that if they led upright and honorable lives, and their family increased, they and their children might some day be taken to the nobleman's palace, to be boiled black, and laid on a silver dish.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	burdock	burdock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	snails	snail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
12	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	inheritance	inheritance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	repeated	repeat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	obj	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	often	often	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	finest	fine	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	30	amod	_	_
30	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
36	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
37	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
38	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	led	lead	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
40	upright	upright	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
42	honorable	honorable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
46	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	47	nmod:poss	_	_
47	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nsubj	_	_
48	increased	increase	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
50	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	58	cc	_	_
52	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	53	nmod:poss	_	_
53	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	58	nsubj:pass	_	_
54	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	58	aux	_	_
55	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	56	det	_	_
56	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	obl:unmarked	_	_
57	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	58	aux:pass	_	_
58	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	50	conj	_	_
59	to	to	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
60	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
61	nobleman	nobleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	63	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	's	's	PART	POS	_	61	case	_	_
63	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	67	punct	_	_
65	to	to	PART	TO	_	67	mark	_	_
66	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	67	aux:pass	_	_
67	boiled	boil	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	48	parataxis	_	_
68	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	67	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
69	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	71	punct	_	_
70	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	71	cc	_	_
71	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	67	conj	_	_
72	on	on	ADP	IN	_	75	case	_	_
73	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	75	det	_	_
74	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	75	compound	_	_
75	dish	dish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	71	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
76	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | snails *= snail* | the whole burdock forest | the young snails |  | then | as a inheritance | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent forest=Theme to snail=Recipient |
| 2 | **repeat** | participle | snails *= snail* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | snails *= snail* |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | past | inheritance | the finest place |  | the world |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **lead** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | snails *= snail* |  |  |  |  | upright *property* | vn result-27.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Precondition |
| 6 | **increase** | past | snails's family |  |  |  |  |  | vn caused\_calibratable\_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 7 | **take** | might · passive |  | snails's children |  | the nobleman's palace | day |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to palace=Destination |
| 8 | **boil** | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  | black *property* | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V» |
| 9 | **lay** | participle |  |  |  | a silver dish |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on dish=Destination |

<!-- .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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