---
title: It was quite green, like the leaves of the elder, and was trimmed wi… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was quite green, like the leaves of the elder, and was trimmed with large white Elder-flowers; so that at first one could not tell whether it was a stuff, or a natural green and real flowers. Who acts: odour. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Elderbush, with its depend
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Elderbush, sentence 34

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It was quite green, like the leaves of the elder, and was trimmed with large white Elder-flowers; so that at first one could not tell whether it was a stuff, or a natural green and real flowers.

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**Who acts:** odour · **What happens:** be, trim, not tell · **To what, where:** stuff · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Elderbush. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (odour), 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:pg1597:17:34
# text = It was quite green, like the leaves of the elder, and was trimmed with large white Elder-flowers; so that at first one could not tell whether it was a stuff, or a natural green and real flowers.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	like	like	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	parataxis	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	elder	elder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	trimmed	trim	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
17	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
18	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
19	Elder	Elder	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
23	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	30	mark	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	fixed	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	27	amod	_	_
27	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	tell	tell	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
31	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	stuff	stuff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
37	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	natural	natural	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	green	green	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	parataxis	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
42	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | odour |  |  |  |  | green *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **trim** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  | with large white Elder flowers | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: with flower=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | could |  |  |  |  |  | at first one | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | past | odour | a stuff |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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