---
title: The Grasshopper sat without on a green bank, and reflected on worldl… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The Grasshopper sat without on a green bank, and reflected on worldly things; and he said too, “Yes, a fine exterior is everything--a fine exterior is what people care about.” Who acts: Grasshopper, fine exterior, people. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Leap-frog, with 
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Leap-frog, sentence 27

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The Grasshopper sat without on a green bank, and reflected on worldly things; and he said too, “Yes, a fine exterior is everything--a fine exterior is what people care about.”

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**Who acts:** Grasshopper, fine exterior, people · **What happens:** sit, reflect, say, be, care · **To what, where:** everything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Leap-frog. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Grasshopper, fine exterior, people), 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:pg1597:16:27
# text = The Grasshopper sat without on a green bank, and reflected on worldly things; and he said too, “Yes, a fine exterior is everything--a fine exterior is what people care about.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Grasshopper	Grasshopper	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	without	without	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	reflected	reflect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	worldly	worldly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	too	too	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
21	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	28	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	exterior	exterior	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
28	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	18	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	exterior	exterior	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
33	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
34	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	28	conj	_	_
35	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nsubj	_	_
36	care	care	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	acl:relcl	_	_
37	about	about	ADP	IN	_	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | the Grasshopper |  |  |  |  | without a green bank | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **reflect** | participle | the Grasshopper *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on worldly things | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent on thing=Topic |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Grasshopper |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | a fine exterior | everything |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | a fine exterior |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **care** *in a quote* | present | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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