---
title: There were large trees in small pots, so that they stood so stunted… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There were large trees in small pots, so that they stood so stunted in growth, and ready to burst the pots; in other places, there was a little dull flower in rich mould, with moss round about it, and it was so petted and nursed. Who acts: large trees, trees. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» b
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Story of a Mother, sentence 53

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There were large trees in small pots, so that they stood so stunted in growth, and ready to burst the pots; in other places, there was a little dull flower in rich mould, with moss round about it, and it was so petted and nursed.

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**Who acts:** large trees, trees · **What happens:** be, stand, stunt, burst, pet, nurse · **To what, where:** small pots, growth, pots, little dull flower, rich mould, pot

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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 (large trees, trees), 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:pg1597:21:53
# text = There were large trees in small pots, so that they stood so stunted in growth, and ready to burst the pots; in other places, there was a little dull flower in rich mould, with moss round about it, and it was so petted and nursed.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
3	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	pots	pot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	12	mark	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	fixed	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	stunted	stunt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	advcl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	growth	growth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	advcl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	burst	burst	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	pots	pot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	34	punct	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	places	place	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
29	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	30	expl	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
32	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
33	dull	dull	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	flower	flower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	mould	mould	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
39	with	with	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	moss	moss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	_
41	round	round	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
42	about	about	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
46	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj:pass	_	_
47	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	49	aux:pass	_	_
48	so	so	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	_
49	petted	pet	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	parataxis	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	nursed	nurse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	49	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | large trees |  |  | small pots; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in pot=Location |
| 2 | **stand** | past | trees *= tree* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **stunt** | participle | trees *= tree* *not said here* |  |  | growth |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **burst** | to-infinitive | trees *= tree* *not said here* | the pots |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location pot=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | past |  | a little dull flower and moss about moss |  | rich mould |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **pet** | past · passive |  | pot |  |  |  |  | vn marry-36.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Co-Agent |
| 7 | **nurse** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn captain-29.8-1 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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