---
title: There was only one cretin amongst them, a poor idiot boy, one of tho… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: There was only one cretin amongst them, a poor idiot boy, one of those unfortunate beings who, in their neglected conditions, go from house to house, and are received and taken care of in different families, for a month or two at a time. Who acts: one cretin, unfortunate beings, people. A sentence o
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, III. the Uncle, sentence 2

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There was only one cretin amongst them, a poor idiot boy, one of those unfortunate beings who, in their neglected conditions, go from house to house, and are received and taken care of in different families, for a month or two at a time.

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**Who acts:** one cretin, unfortunate beings, people · **What happens:** be, neglect, go, receive, take, condition · **To what, where:** house, care, different families

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, III. the Uncle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one cretin, unfortunate beings, people), 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:pg27200:54:2
# text = There was only one cretin amongst them, a poor idiot boy, one of those unfortunate beings who, in their neglected conditions, go from house to house, and are received and taken care of in different families, for a month or two at a time.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	cretin	cretin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	amongst	amongst	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	idiot	idiot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	appos	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
17	unfortunate	unfortunate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	beings	being	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	neglected	neglect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
24	conditions	condition	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
26	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl:relcl	_	_
27	from	from	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux:pass	_	_
34	received	receive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	conj	_	_
37	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	obl	_	_
39	in	in	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	different	different	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	families	family	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
43	for	for	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	month	month	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl:unmarked	_	_
46	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
47	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	45	conj	_	_
48	at	at	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | one cretin amongst people and a poor idiot boy |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **neglect** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn neglect-75.1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **go** | infinitive | that unfortunate beings |  |  | house |  | to house | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme from house=Initial\_Location to house=Destination |
| 4 | **receive** | present · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP» |
| 5 | **take** | participle |  | care |  | different families | month; time |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent care=Value in family=Location |
| 6 | **condition** |  | people |  |  |  |  |  | nom condition «state transitive»: poss=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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