---
title: On many a warm summer, the Ephemera, the flies that exist for only a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: On many a warm summer, the Ephemera, the flies that exist for only a day, had fluttered about the old oak, enjoyed life and felt happy and if, for a moment, one of the tiny creatures rested on one of his large fresh leaves, the tree would always say, "Poor little creature! your whole life consists o
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Last Dream of the Old Oak, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On many a warm summer, the Ephemera, the flies that exist for only a day, had fluttered about the old oak, enjoyed life and felt happy and if, for a moment, one of the tiny creatures rested on one of his large fresh leaves, the tree would always say, "Poor little creature! your whole life consists only of a single day.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** flies, tree, whole life · **What happens:** exist, flutter, enjoy, feel, rest, say · **To what, where:** flies, life, tiny creatures · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (flies, tree, whole life), 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:pg27200:69:5
# text = On many a warm summer, the Ephemera, the flies that exist for only a day, had fluttered about the old oak, enjoyed life and felt happy and if, for a moment, one of the tiny creatures rested on one of his large fresh leaves, the tree would always say, "Poor little creature! your whole life consists only of a single day.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
2	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	nsubj	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	warm	warm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	summer	summer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Ephemera	Ephemera	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	flies	fly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
12	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	exist	exist	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	only	only	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	fluttered	flutter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
21	about	about	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	enjoyed	enjoy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
27	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
30	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	xcomp	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	56	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
34	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
38	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	36	appos	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nmod	_	_
43	rested	rest	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	42	acl	_	_
44	on	on	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
45	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	43	obl	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
47	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	50	nmod:poss	_	_
48	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
49	fresh	fresh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
52	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	nsubj	_	_
54	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	56	aux	_	_
55	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	56	advmod	_	_
56	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	61	punct	_	_
58	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	61	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	Poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	61	amod	_	_
60	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	61	amod	_	_
61	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	61	punct	_	_
63	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	65	nmod:poss	_	_
64	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	65	amod	_	_
65	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	66	nsubj	_	_
66	consists	consist	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	61	parataxis	_	_
67	only	only	ADV	RB	_	71	advmod	_	_
68	of	of	ADP	IN	_	71	case	_	_
69	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	71	det	_	_
70	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	71	amod	_	_
71	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	66	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
72	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **exist** | present | the flies |  |  |  | day |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **flutter** | past · perfect |  | the flies *not said here* |  |  |  | about the old oak | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about oak=Location |
| 3 | **enjoy** | past |  | life |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer life=Stimulus |
| 4 | **feel** | past |  |  |  |  |  | happy *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **rest** | participle |  | the tiny creatures *not said here* |  |  |  | on one of Ephemera's large fresh leaves | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on one=Location |
| 6 | **say** *speech: express* *a condition, not said to happen* | would | the tree |  |  |  | moment | always *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **consist** *in a quote* | present | your whole life |  |  |  | day |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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