---
title: The little robber maiden wound her arm round Gerda's neck, held the… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The little robber maiden wound her arm round Gerda's neck, held the knife in the other hand, and snored so loud that everybody could hear her; but Gerda could not close her eyes, for she did not know whether she was to live or die. Who acts: little robber, everybody, Gerda. A sentence of «Andersen's
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 4, sentence 40

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The little robber maiden wound her arm round Gerda's neck, held the knife in the other hand, and snored so loud that everybody could hear her; but Gerda could not close her eyes, for she did not know whether she was to live or die.

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**Who acts:** little robber, everybody, Gerda · **What happens:** hold, snore, hear, not close, not know, be · **To what, where:** knife, other hand, Gerda, eyes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little robber, everybody, Gerda), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg1597:14:40
# text = The little robber maiden wound her arm round Gerda's neck, held the knife in the other hand, and snored so loud that everybody could hear her; but Gerda could not close her eyes, for she did not know whether she was to live or die.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	robber	robber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
4	maiden	maiden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
5	wound	wound	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	arm	arm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	round	round	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	Gerda	Gerda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	's	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
13	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	snored	snore	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
23	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	loud	loud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	everybody	everybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	28	nsubj	_	_
27	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
29	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
31	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
32	Gerda	Gerda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
33	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
34	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	35	advmod	_	_
35	close	close	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
36	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
39	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	43	mark	_	_
40	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
41	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	aux	_	_
42	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	43	advmod	_	_
43	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	conj	_	_
44	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	48	mark	_	_
45	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj	_	_
46	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	cop	_	_
47	to	to	PART	TO	_	48	mark	_	_
48	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	43	ccomp	_	_
49	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
50	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	48	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | past | the little robber | the knife |  | the other hand |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent knife=Theme in hand=Location |
| 2 | **snore** | past | the little robber *not said here* |  |  |  |  | loud *property* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **hear** | could | everybody | Gerda |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer she=Stimulus |
| 4 | **not** **close** | could | Gerda | Gerda's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient |
| 5 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | Gerda |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **is** | past | Gerda |  |  |  |  | live *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **die** | infinitive | Gerda *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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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