---
title: Then a knocking was heard at the door, and in came a poor old man wr… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then a knocking was heard at the door, and in came a poor old man wrapped up as in a large horse-cloth, for it warms one, and he needed it, as it was the cold winter season! Who acts: poor old man, knocking, man. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of a Mother, with i
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Story of a Mother, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then a knocking was heard at the door, and in came a poor old man wrapped up as in a large horse-cloth, for it warms one, and he needed it, as it was the cold winter season!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** poor old man, knocking, man · **What happens:** hear, come, wrap up, warm, need, be · **To what, where:** knocking, door, poor old man, one, cold winter season

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of a Mother. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor old man, knocking, man), 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:pg1597:21:4
# text = Then a knocking was heard at the door, and in came a poor old man wrapped up as in a large horse-cloth, for it warms one, and he needed it, as it was the cold winter season!
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	knocking	knocking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
17	wrapped	wrap	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
18	up	up	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
22	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
23	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	warms	warm	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
30	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	needed	need	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
35	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
37	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	43	mark	_	_
38	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
39	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	cop	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
41	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
42	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	compound	_	_
43	season	season	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past · passive |  | a knocking |  | the door | then |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus |
| 2 | **come** | past | a poor old man |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **wrap up** | participle |  | a poor old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **warm** | present | knocking | one |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent one=Patient |
| 5 | **need** | past | man | knocking |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot it=Theme |
| 6 | **is a** | past | knocking | the cold winter season |  |  |  |  | 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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