---
title: They had been told by their grandmothers that who ever did so would… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They had been told by their grandmothers that who ever did so would be sure to have new clothes before the end of the year. Who acts: grandmothers. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Conceited Apple-branch, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Conceited Apple-branch, sentence 37

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They had been told by their grandmothers that who ever did so would be sure to have new clothes before the end of the year.

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**Who acts:** grandmothers · **What happens:** tell, do, be, have · **To what, where:** children, grandmothers, new clothes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Conceited Apple-branch. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (grandmothers), 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:pg27200:6:37
# text = They had been told by their grandmothers that who ever did so would be sure to have new clothes before the end of the year.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	grandmothers	grandmother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	obj	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
10	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	11	advmod	_	_
11	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
15	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	parataxis	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
18	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	17	obj	_	_
20	before	before	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · perfect · passive | children's grandmothers | children *= child* |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent subject=Recipient |
| 2 | **do** | past | children's grandmothers | children's grandmothers |  |  | ever |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is** | would |  |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | to-infinitive |  | new clothes |  |  | before the end of the year |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent clothes=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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