---
title: The children danced about with their beautiful playthings; no one lo… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The children danced about with their beautiful playthings; no one looked at the Tree except the old nurse, who peeped between the branches; but it was only to see if there was a fig or an apple left that had been forgotten. Who acts: children, one, old nurse, permission. A sentence of «Andersen's Fa
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, sentence 103

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The children danced about with their beautiful playthings; no one looked at the Tree except the old nurse, who peeped between the branches; but it was only to see if there was a fig or an apple left that had been forgotten.

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**Who acts:** children, one, old nurse, permission, fig · **What happens:** dance, look, peep, see, be, leave · **To what, where:** that · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (children, one, old nurse, permission), 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:pg1597:10:103
# text = The children danced about with their beautiful playthings; no one looked at the Tree except the old nurse, who peeped between the branches; but it was only to see if there was a fig or an apple left that had been forgotten.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	danced	dance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	about	about	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	playthings	plaything	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
10	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	11	det	_	_
11	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Tree	Tree	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	except	except	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
22	peeped	peep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
23	between	between	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
30	only	only	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
33	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
34	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	35	expl	_	_
35	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	advcl	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	fig	fig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
38	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
39	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	apple	apple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	conj	_	_
41	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	ccomp	_	_
42	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	45	nsubj:pass	_	_
43	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	45	aux	_	_
44	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	45	aux:pass	_	_
45	forgotten	forget	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	41	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dance** | past | the children |  |  |  |  | with children's beautiful playthings; about *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **look** | past | no one |  |  |  |  | except the old nurse; at the Tree | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at tree=Theme |
| 3 | **peep** | past | the old nurse |  |  |  |  | between the branches | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent between branch=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | past | permission |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **be** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | a fig or a apple *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **leave** | past | a fig or a apple |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **forget** | past · perfect · passive |  | that |  |  |  |  | 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.

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**Text:** «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 1597 (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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