---
title: At once she seized hold of two beautiful flowers close by, with each… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: At once she seized hold of two beautiful flowers close by, with each hand, and cried out to Death, “I will tear all thy flowers off, for I am in despair.” Who acts: mother, hold. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of a Mother, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Story of a Mother, sentence 71

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At once she seized hold of two beautiful flowers close by, with each hand, and cried out to Death, “I will tear all thy flowers off, for I am in despair.”

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**Who acts:** mother, hold · **What happens:** seize, close, cry out, tear, be, hold · **To what, where:** Death, flowers, two beautiful flowers · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (mother, hold), 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:pg1597:21:71
# text = At once she seized hold of two beautiful flowers close by, with each hand, and cried out to Death, “I will tear all thy flowers off, for I am in despair.”
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	obl	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
8	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
10	close	close	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
15	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
19	out	out	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Death	Death	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	tear	tear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
27	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	29	det	_	_
28	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
30	off	off	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
32	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
33	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
34	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | past | mother |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **close** | present | hold of two beautiful flowers |  |  |  |  | by each hand | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **cry out** *speech: express* | past | mother *not said here* |  | Death |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to death=Recipient |
| 4 | **tear** *in a quote* | future | mother | thy flowers |  |  |  | off *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location flower=Theme |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | present | mother |  |  |  |  | for despair | tree rules |
| 6 | **hold** |  |  | two beautiful flowers |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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