--- title: "They are always busy about something, the little rogues," said the… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics description: "They are always busy about something, the little rogues," said the mother, beaming with maternal pride; but the beetle felt it a bore, and he therefore inquired the way to the nearest dung-heap. Who acts: third, mother, beetle. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Anderse --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/8/71/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Beetle Who Went on His Travels](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/8/) / 71 # Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Beetle Who Went on His Travels, sentence 71 "They are always busy about something, the little rogues," said the mother, beaming with maternal pride; but the beetle felt it a bore, and he therefore inquired the way to the nearest dung-heap. **Who acts:** third, mother, beetle · **What happens:** be, say, beam, feel, inquire · **To what, where:** pride, way · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Beetle Who Went on His Travels. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (third, mother, beetle), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg27200:8:71 # text = "They are always busy about something, the little rogues," said the mother, beaming with maternal pride; but the beetle felt it a bore, and he therefore inquired the way to the nearest dung-heap. 1 " " PUNCT `` _ 5 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 They they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 5 nsubj _ _ 3 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 cop _ _ 4 always always ADV RB PronType=Tot 5 advmod _ _ 5 busy busy ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 14 ccomp _ _ 6 about about ADP IN _ 7 case _ _ 7 something something PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 5 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 11 punct _ _ 9 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 10 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 11 amod _ _ 11 rogues rogue NOUN NNS Number=Plur 7 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 12 , , PUNCT , _ 5 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 13 " " PUNCT '' _ 5 punct _ _ 14 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 15 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 16 det _ _ 16 mother mother NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 17 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 18 beaming beam VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 14 advcl _ _ 19 with with ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 20 maternal maternal ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 21 amod _ _ 21 pride pride NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 22 ; ; PUNCT , _ 26 punct _ _ 23 but but CCONJ CC _ 26 cc _ _ 24 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 25 det _ _ 25 beetle beetle NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 nsubj _ _ 26 felt feel VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 14 parataxis _ _ 27 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 26 obj _ _ 28 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 29 det _ _ 29 bore bore NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 30 , , PUNCT , _ 34 punct _ _ 31 and and CCONJ CC _ 34 cc _ _ 32 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 34 nsubj _ _ 33 therefore therefore ADV RB _ 34 advmod _ _ 34 inquired inquire VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 26 conj _ _ 35 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 36 way way NOUN NN Number=Sing 34 obj _ _ 37 to to ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 38 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 42 det _ _ 39 nearest near ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 42 amod _ _ 40 dung dung NOUN NN Number=Sing 42 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 41 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 40 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 42 heap heap NOUN NN Number=Sing 34 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 14 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | third | | | | | about something; always, busy *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the mother | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | | 3 | **beam** | gerund | the mother *not said here* | | | | | with maternal pride | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with pride=Theme | | 4 | **feel** | past | the beetle | pride | | | | | vn conjecture-29.5-2 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme bore=Eventuality | | 5 | **inquire** *speech: other* | past | beetle | the way | | | | to the nearest dung heap; therefore *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent way=Recipient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/8/70/) - next →: [sentence 72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/8/72/) - ↑ back to [The Beetle Who Went on His Travels](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/8/)