---
title: And then there was a flight of stairs which went a good way upwards,… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And then there was a flight of stairs which went a good way upwards, and a little way downwards, and then one came on a balcony which was in a very dilapidated state, sure enough, with large holes and long crevices, but grass grew there and leaves out of them altogether, for the whole balcony outsid
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Old House, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And then there was a flight of stairs which went a good way upwards, and a little way downwards, and then one came on a balcony which was in a very dilapidated state, sure enough, with large holes and long crevices, but grass grew there and leaves out of them altogether, for the whole balcony outside, the yard, and the walls, were overgrown with so much green stuff, that it looked like a garden; only a balcony.

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**Who acts:** flight, little way, balcony, grass · **What happens:** go, be, dilapidate, grow, leave out, overgrow · **To what, where:** good way, balcony, dilapidated state, crevices, walls

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Old House. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (flight, little way, balcony, grass), 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:pg1597:19:23
# text = And then there was a flight of stairs which went a good way upwards, and a little way downwards, and then one came on a balcony which was in a very dilapidated state, sure enough, with large holes and long crevices, but grass grew there and leaves out of them altogether, for the whole balcony outside, the yard, and the walls, were overgrown with so much green stuff, that it looked like a garden; only a balcony.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
3	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	4	expl	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	stairs	stair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
14	upwards	upwards	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
20	downwards	downwards	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
24	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nsubj	_	_
25	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	balcony	balcony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	35	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
33	very	very	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	dilapidated	dilapidate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	35	amod	_	_
35	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
37	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	conj	_	_
38	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
40	with	with	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	holes	hole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	parataxis	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
44	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	crevices	crevice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
47	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
48	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	nsubj	_	_
49	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	parataxis	_	_
50	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	49	advmod	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
52	leaves	leave	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	49	conj	_	_
53	out	out	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	of	of	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
55	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	52	obl	_	_
56	altogether	altogether	ADV	RB	_	52	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	61	punct	_	_
58	for	for	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
59	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
60	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	61	amod	_	_
61	balcony	balcony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obl	_	_
62	outside	outside	ADV	RB	_	61	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	65	punct	_	_
64	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	65	det	_	_
65	yard	yard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	61	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	72	punct	_	_
67	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	72	cc	_	_
68	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	69	det	_	_
69	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	72	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
70	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	69	punct	_	_
71	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	72	aux:pass	_	_
72	overgrown	overgrow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	49	conj	_	_
73	with	with	ADP	IN	_	77	case	_	_
74	so	so	ADV	RB	_	75	advmod	_	_
75	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	77	amod	_	_
76	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	77	amod	_	_
77	stuff	stuff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	72	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
78	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	81	punct	_	_
79	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	81	mark	_	_
80	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	81	nsubj	_	_
81	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	72	parataxis	_	_
82	like	like	ADP	IN	_	84	case	_	_
83	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	84	det	_	_
84	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	81	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
85	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	88	punct	_	_
86	only	only	ADV	RB	_	88	advmod	_	_
87	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	88	det	_	_
88	balcony	balcony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
89	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | a flight of stairs | a good way |  |  |  | upwards *property* | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location way=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | a little way |  |  | a balcony |  | a balcony *obl*; come *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **dilapidate** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | a balcony |  |  | a dilapidated state |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** |  | a balcony *not said here* |  |  |  |  | enough *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **grow** | past | grass |  |  | there |  | for the whole balcony and the yard | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **leave out** | present | grass *not said here* | crevices *= crevice* |  |  |  | altogether *property* | vn neglect-75.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 8 | **overgrow** | past · passive |  | the walls |  |  |  | with much green stuff | tree rules |
| 9 | **look** | past | grass |  |  |  |  | like a garden | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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