---
title: The children often came with a whole pitcher full of berries, or a l… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The children often came with a whole pitcher full of berries, or a long row of them threaded on a straw, and sat down near the young tree and said, “Oh, how pretty he is! Who acts: children, he. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The children often came with a whole pitcher full of berries, or a long row of them threaded on a straw, and sat down near the young tree and said, “Oh, how pretty he is!

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**Who acts:** children, he · **What happens:** come, thread, sit down, say, be · **To what, where:** long row, young tree · **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, he), 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:pg1597:10:5
# text = The children often came with a whole pitcher full of berries, or a long row of them threaded on a straw, and sat down near the young tree and said, “Oh, how pretty he is!
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	often	often	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	pitcher	pitcher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	berries	berry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	row	row	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	_
19	threaded	thread	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	straw	straw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
26	down	down	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	near	near	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
34	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	40	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	40	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
37	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	38	advmod	_	_
38	pretty	pretty	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
39	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
40	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the children |  |  |  |  | with a whole pitcher or a long row of firs; often *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **thread** | participle |  | a long row of firs *not said here* |  |  |  | on a straw | vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle PP»: agent=Patient on straw=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **sit down** | past |  |  |  | the young tree |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent near tree=Location |
| 4 | **say** *speech: express* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **be** *in a quote* | present | he |  |  |  |  | pretty *property* | vn exist-47.1 «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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