---
title: "I heard the rats say one night," said the kitchen-cat, "that the gr… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "I heard the rats say one night," said the kitchen-cat, "that the greatest pleasure in the world was to eat tallow candles and to feast on rancid bacon. Who acts: kitchen cat, rats, greatest pleasure. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, XIII. At the Mill, with i
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, XIII. At the Mill, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"I heard the rats say one night," said the kitchen-cat, "that the greatest pleasure in the world was to eat tallow candles and to feast on rancid bacon.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** kitchen cat, rats, greatest pleasure · **What happens:** hear, say, be, feast · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, XIII. At the Mill. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (kitchen cat, rats, greatest pleasure), 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:pg27200:64:28
# text = "I heard the rats say one night," said the kitchen-cat, "that the greatest pleasure in the world was to eat tallow candles and to feast on rancid bacon.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	rats	rat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
7	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	greatest	great	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	21	amod	_	_
21	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
28	tallow	tallow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	candles	candle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	feast	feast	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	_
33	on	on	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	rancid	rancid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	bacon	bacon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** *in a quote* | past | the kitchen cat *= cat* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | the rats |  |  |  | night |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the kitchen cat |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | past | the greatest pleasure in the world |  |  |  |  | eat *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **feast** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the greatest pleasure in the world *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on rancid bacon | vn dine-39.5 «NP V PP.patient»: agent=Agent on bacon=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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