---
title: But the distressed mother bent down over all the smallest plants, an… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the distressed mother bent down over all the smallest plants, and heard within them how the human heart beat; and amongst millions she knew her child's. Who acts: distressed mother, mother. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of a Mother, with its dependency tree 
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Story of a Mother, sentence 54

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But the distressed mother bent down over all the smallest plants, and heard within them how the human heart beat; and amongst millions she knew her child's.

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**Who acts:** distressed mother, mother · **What happens:** distress, bend down, hear, know · **To what, where:** distressed mother, smallest plants, human heart beat, child

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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 (distressed mother, mother), 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:pg1597:21:54
# text = But the distressed mother bent down over all the smallest plants, and heard within them how the human heart beat; and amongst millions she knew her child's.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	distressed	distress	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	amod	_	_
4	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
5	bent	bend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
6	down	down	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	over	over	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	11	det:predet	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	smallest	small	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	11	amod	_	_
11	plants	plant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	within	within	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	_
17	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
19	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
20	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	beat	beat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	amongst	amongst	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	millions	million	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	_
26	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
28	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	's	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **distress** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **bend down** | participle |  | the distressed mother *not said here* |  | all smallest plants |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over plant=Location |
| 3 | **hear** | past | the distressed mother | the human heart beat |  |  |  | within plants *= plant* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **know** | past | mother | mother's child |  |  |  | amongst millions | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer child=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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