---
title: The clock talked politics--"tick, tick;" he professed to know what w… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The clock talked politics--"tick, tick;" he professed to know what was the time of day, but there was a whisper that he did not go correctly. Who acts: clock, theatre, time, whisper. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Money-box, with its dependency tree and
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Money-box, sentence 20

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The clock talked politics--"tick, tick;" he professed to know what was the time of day, but there was a whisper that he did not go correctly.

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**Who acts:** clock, theatre, time, whisper · **What happens:** talk, profess, know, be, not go · **To what, where:** politics, whisper · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Money-box. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (clock, theatre, time, whisper), 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:pg27200:90:20
# text = The clock talked politics--"tick, tick;" he professed to know what was the time of day, but there was a whisper that he did not go correctly.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	clock	clock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	politics	politics	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	tick	tick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	tick	tick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	professed	profess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	15	ccomp	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	25	expl	_	_
25	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	whisper	whisper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	32	advmod	_	_
32	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	acl	_	_
33	correctly	correctly	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past | the clock | politics and tick and tick |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent politics=Patient |
| 2 | **profess** | past | theatre |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-2 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **know** | to-infinitive | theatre *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is a** | past | the time of day |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** | past | a whisper |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **go** | past · do-support | theatre | a whisper *not said here* |  |  |  | correctly *property* | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location whisper=Theme |

<!-- .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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