---
title: At first the boy could not hear, for he talked a great deal to his w… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: At first the boy could not hear, for he talked a great deal to his wife, and she nodded and stroked the boy's cheek. Who acts: boy, news. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Metal Pig, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Metal Pig, sentence 96

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At first the boy could not hear, for he talked a great deal to his wife, and she nodded and stroked the boy's cheek.

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**Who acts:** boy, news · **What happens:** not hear, talk, nod, stroke · **To what, where:** great deal, cheek

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Metal Pig. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, news), 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:pg27200:89:96
# text = At first the boy could not hear, for he talked a great deal to his wife, and she nodded and stroked the boy's cheek.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	7	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	nodded	nod	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	stroked	stroke	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	's	's	PART	POS	_	25	case	_	_
27	cheek	cheek	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **hear** | could | the boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **talk** | past | boy | a great deal |  |  |  | to boy's wife | tree rules |
| 3 | **nod** | past | news |  |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **stroke** | past | news *not said here* | the boy's cheek |  |  |  |  | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cheek=Experiencer |

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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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