---
title: The sparrows took possession of the stork's nest, and conversed abou… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The sparrows took possession of the stork's nest, and conversed about the absent owners in their own fashion; and they, the stork pair and all their young ones, where were they staying now? Who acts: sparrows. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 2, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The sparrows took possession of the stork's nest, and conversed about the absent owners in their own fashion; and they, the stork pair and all their young ones, where were they staying now?

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**Who acts:** sparrows · **What happens:** take, converse, pair, stay, possess · **To what, where:** possession, nest

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sparrows), 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:pg27200:84:40
# text = The sparrows took possession of the stork's nest, and conversed about the absent owners in their own fashion; and they, the stork pair and all their young ones, where were they staying now?
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	possession	possession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	stork	stork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	conversed	converse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
13	about	about	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	absent	absent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	owners	owner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	fashion	fashion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	stork	stork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	pair	pair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
29	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	32	det:predet	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
31	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
34	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	37	advmod	_	_
35	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
36	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	staying	stay	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	32	acl	_	_
38	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the sparrows | possession of the stork's nest |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent possession=Theme |
| 2 | **converse** *speech: other* | participle | the sparrows *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the absent owners in sparrows's own fashion | vn chit\_chat-37.6 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about owner=Topic |
| 3 | **pair** |  | sparrows *= sparrow* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **stay** | past · progressive | sparrows *= sparrow* |  |  |  | now |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **possess** |  |  | the stork's nest |  |  |  |  | nom possession «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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