---
title: Two little girls are sitting in it, and swing themselves backwards a… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Two little girls are sitting in it, and swing themselves backwards and forwards; their frocks are as white as snow, and long green silk ribands flutter from their bonnets. Who acts: Two little girls, frocks, long green silk ribands. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow 
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 2, sentence 91

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Two little girls are sitting in it, and swing themselves backwards and forwards; their frocks are as white as snow, and long green silk ribands flutter from their bonnets.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Two little girls, frocks, long green silk ribands · **What happens:** sit, swing, be, flutter · **To what, where:** board, trees, bonnets

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Two little girls, frocks, long green silk ribands), 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:pg1597:12:91
# text = Two little girls are sitting in it, and swing themselves backwards and forwards; their frocks are as white as snow, and long green silk ribands flutter from their bonnets.
1	Two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	swing	swing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
11	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obj	_	_
12	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	forwards	forwards	ADV	RB	_	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	frocks	frock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
18	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	as	as	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	_
21	as	as	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
25	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
26	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
27	silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	ribands	riband	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
29	flutter	flutter	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	parataxis	_	_
30	from	from	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	bonnets	bonnet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | present · progressive | Two little girls |  |  | board |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in it=Location |
| 2 | **swing** | infinitive | Two little girls *not said here* | trees *= tree* |  |  |  | backwards *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | present | trees's frocks |  |  |  |  | as snow; white *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **flutter** | present | long green silk ribands |  |  | trees's bonnets |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «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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