---
title: None noticed Helga but a flock of magpies, which flew chattering rou… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: None noticed Helga but a flock of magpies, which flew chattering round the top of the tree on which she sat. These birds hopped close to her on the branches with bold curiosity. Who acts: None, flock. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 4, sentence 69

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None noticed Helga but a flock of magpies, which flew chattering round the top of the tree on which she sat. These birds hopped close to her on the branches with bold curiosity.

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**Who acts:** None, flock · **What happens:** notice, fly, chatter, hop · **To what, where:** Helga, tree

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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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (None, flock), 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:pg27200:86:69
# text = None noticed Helga but a flock of magpies, which flew chattering round the top of the tree on which she sat. These birds hopped close to her on the branches with bold curiosity.
1	None	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	2	nsubj	_	_
2	noticed	notice	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	Helga	Helga	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	flock	flock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	magpies	magpie	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	chattering	chatter	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	xcomp	_	_
13	round	round	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	obl	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
22	sat.	Saturday	PROPN	NNP	Abbr=Yes|Number=Sing	21	flat	_	_
23	These	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	24	det	_	_
24	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	conj	_	_
25	hopped	hop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
26	close	close	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	25	advmod	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
29	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	bold	bold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	curiosity	curiosity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **notice** | past | None | Helga |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer helga=Stimulus |
| 2 | **fly** | past | a flock of magpies |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **chatter** | gerund | a flock of magpies *not said here* |  |  |  |  | round the top of the tree | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **hop** | past | flock |  |  | the tree |  | on the branches with bold curiosity; close *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on which=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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