---
title: Crows and rooks came by turns and sat on them, and talked of the har… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Crows and rooks came by turns and sat on them, and talked of the hard times which were beginning, and how difficult it was in winter to obtain food. Who acts: Crows, hard times, oak. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Last Dream of the Old Oak, with its dep
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Last Dream of the Old Oak, sentence 44

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Crows and rooks came by turns and sat on them, and talked of the hard times which were beginning, and how difficult it was in winter to obtain food.

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**Who acts:** Crows, hard times, oak · **What happens:** come, sit, talk, begin, be, obtain · **To what, where:** food

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Last Dream of the Old Oak. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Crows, hard times, oak), 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:pg27200:69:44
# text = Crows and rooks came by turns and sat on them, and talked of the hard times which were beginning, and how difficult it was in winter to obtain food.
1	Crows	crow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	rooks	rook	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	conj	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	turns	turn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
18	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	beginning	begin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
24	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	parataxis	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	obtain	obtain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	acl	_	_
31	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | Crows and rooks |  |  |  |  | by turns | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by turn=Location |
| 2 | **sit** | past | Crows and rooks *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on Crows *= crow* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on they=Location |
| 3 | **talk** | past | Crows and rooks *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **begin** | past · progressive | the hard times |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 5 | **is** | past | oak |  |  |  |  | in winter | tree rules |
| 6 | **obtain** | to-infinitive | Crows and rooks *not said here* | food |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset food=Theme |

<!-- .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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