---
title: “The earth is hard and covered with snow; men cannot plant me now, a… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “The earth is hard and covered with snow; men cannot plant me now, and therefore I have been put up here under shelter till the spring-time comes! Who acts: earth, men, spring time. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, sentence 137

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“The earth is hard and covered with snow; men cannot plant me now, and therefore I have been put up here under shelter till the spring-time comes!

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**Who acts:** earth, men, spring time · **What happens:** be, cover, not plant, put up, come · **To what, where:** Tis, shelter

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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 (earth, men, spring time), 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:pg1597:10:137
# text = “The earth is hard and covered with snow; men cannot plant me now, and therefore I have been put up here under shelter till the spring-time comes!
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
12	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	plant	plant	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
15	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
19	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	conj	_	_
24	up	up	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	23	advmod	_	_
26	under	under	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	shelter	shelter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
28	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
30	spring	spring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
33	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the earth |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **cover** *in a quote* | participle | the earth *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with snow | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with snow=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **plant** *in a quote* | can | men | Tis  winter out doors *= tis* |  |  | now |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 4 | **put up** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | Tis  winter out doors *= tis* |  | shelter; here |  | therefore *property* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme under shelter=Destination |
| 5 | **come** *in a quote* | present | the spring time |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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:** «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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