---
title: The first words that they heard in this world, when the lid of the b… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The first words that they heard in this world, when the lid of the box in which they lay was taken off, were: ‘Hurrah, tin-soldiers!’ Who acts: words, first words. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/50/3/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The Steadfast Tin-soldier](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/50/) / 3

# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The first words that they heard in this world, when the lid of the box in which they lay was taken off, were: ‘Hurrah, tin-soldiers!’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** words, first words · **What happens:** hear, lie, take off, be · **To what, where:** first words, world, box, lid, Hurrah

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (words, first words), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg640:50:3
# text = The first words that they heard in this world, when the lid of the box in which they lay was taken off, were: ‘Hurrah, tin-soldiers!’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	3	amod	_	_
3	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	6	obj	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
11	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	22	mark	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	lid	lid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	obl	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
23	off	off	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
27	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	Hurrah	Hurrah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	tin	tin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | words *= word* | the first words |  | this world |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus |
| 2 | **lie** | past | words *= word* |  |  | the box |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in which=Location |
| 3 | **take off** | past · passive |  | the lid of the box |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | past | the first words | Hurrah and tin soldiers |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/50/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/50/4/)
- ↑ back to [The Steadfast Tin-soldier](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/50/)