--- title: The town now appeared small and poor, and the school-boys read in th… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics description: The town now appeared small and poor, and the school-boys read in their books, which they carried under their arms, that it contained two thousand inhabitants; but this was a mere boast, for it did not contain so many. Who acts: town, school boys, towns, castle. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Ch --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/80/27/) [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/) / [Little Tuk](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/80/) / 27 # Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Little Tuk, sentence 27 The town now appeared small and poor, and the school-boys read in their books, which they carried under their arms, that it contained two thousand inhabitants; but this was a mere boast, for it did not contain so many. **Who acts:** town, school boys, towns, castle, this · **What happens:** appear, read, carry, contain, be, not contain · **To what, where:** books, arms, thousand inhabitants, mere boast, many This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Tuk. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (town, school boys, towns, castle), 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:pg27200:80:27 # text = The town now appeared small and poor, and the school-boys read in their books, which they carried under their arms, that it contained two thousand inhabitants; but this was a mere boast, for it did not contain so many. 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 town town NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ _ 3 now now ADV RB PronType=Dem 4 advmod _ _ 4 appeared appear VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 small small ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 4 xcomp _ _ 6 and and CCONJ CC _ 7 cc _ _ 7 poor poor ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 5 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 9 and and CCONJ CC _ 14 cc _ _ 10 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 13 det _ _ 11 school school NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 12 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 11 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 13 boys boy NOUN NNS Number=Plur 14 nsubj _ _ 14 read read VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 15 in in ADP IN _ 17 case _ _ 16 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 17 nmod:poss _ _ 17 books book NOUN NNS Number=Plur 14 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 18 , , PUNCT , _ 21 punct _ _ 19 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 21 obj _ _ 20 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 21 nsubj _ _ 21 carried carry VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 17 acl:relcl _ _ 22 under under ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 23 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 24 nmod:poss _ _ 24 arms arm NOUN NNS Number=Plur 21 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 25 , , PUNCT , _ 28 punct _ _ 26 that that SCONJ IN _ 28 mark _ _ 27 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 28 nsubj _ _ 28 contained contain VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 21 conj _ _ 29 two two NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 30 compound _ _ 30 thousand thousand NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 31 nummod _ _ 31 inhabitants inhabitant NOUN NNS Number=Plur 28 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 32 ; ; PUNCT : _ 38 punct _ _ 33 but but CCONJ CC _ 38 cc _ _ 34 this this PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 38 nsubj _ _ 35 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 38 cop _ _ 36 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 38 det _ _ 37 mere mere ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 38 amod _ _ 38 boast boast NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 39 , , PUNCT , _ 44 punct _ _ 40 for for SCONJ IN _ 44 mark _ _ 41 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 44 nsubj _ _ 42 did do AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 44 aux _ _ 43 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 44 advmod _ _ 44 contain contain VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 38 parataxis _ _ 45 so so ADV RB _ 46 advmod _ _ 46 many many ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 44 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 47 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **appear** | past | the town | | | | now | small *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **read** | present | the school boys | | | towns's books | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 3 | **carry** | past | towns *= town* | towns's books | | towns's arms | | | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Theme | | 4 | **contain** | past | castle | thousand inhabitants | | | | | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot inhabitant=Theme | | 5 | **is a** | past | this | a mere boast | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **not** **contain** | past · do-support | castle | many | | | | | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot many=Theme | 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 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/80/26/) - next →: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/80/28/) - ↑ back to [Little Tuk](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/80/)