---
title: There they sat, all three; and as for Alfred, a proverb may describe… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: There they sat, all three; and as for Alfred, a proverb may describe his position--he looked like a swan amongst the geese. Who acts: mythologies, proverb. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Beauty of Form and Beauty of Mind, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Beauty of Form and Beauty of Mind, sentence 92

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There they sat, all three; and as for Alfred, a proverb may describe his position--he looked like a swan amongst the geese.

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**Who acts:** mythologies, proverb · **What happens:** sit, describe, look · **To what, where:** three, position

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Beauty of Form and Beauty of Mind. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mythologies, proverb), 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:pg27200:7:92
# text = There they sat, all three; and as for Alfred, a proverb may describe his position--he looked like a swan amongst the geese.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
6	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADV	3	advmod	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	fixed	_	_
11	Alfred	Alfred	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	proverb	proverb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	describe	describe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	parataxis	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	position	position	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	_
22	like	like	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	swan	swan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	amongst	amongst	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	geese	goose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | mythologies *= mythology* | all three |  | there |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location three=Theme |
| 2 | **describe** | may | a proverb | proverb's position |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent position=Theme |
| 3 | **look** | past | proverb |  |  |  |  | like a swan; amongst the geese | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent amongst goose=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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