---
title: On the table was spread a snow-white tablecloth; upon it was a splen… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: On the table was spread a snow-white tablecloth; upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and the roast goose was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried plums. Who acts: tablecloth, roast goose. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Match Girl, with it
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Match Girl, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On the table was spread a snow-white tablecloth; upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and the roast goose was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried plums.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tablecloth, roast goose · **What happens:** spread, be, steam, dry · **To what, where:** white tablecloth, table

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Match Girl. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tablecloth, roast goose), 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:pg1597:24:23
# text = On the table was spread a snow-white tablecloth; upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and the roast goose was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried plums.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	spread	spread	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
7	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	tablecloth	tablecloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	splendid	splendid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
17	porcelain	porcelain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	roast	roast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	goose	goose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	steaming	steam	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
26	famously	famously	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	stuffing	stuffing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	apple	apple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	dried	dry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	amod	_	_
34	plums	plum	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spread** | past · passive |  | a white tablecloth |  | the table |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: tablecloth=Theme on table=Destination |
| 2 | **is** | past | tablecloth |  |  |  |  | upon a splendid porcelain service | tree rules |
| 3 | **steam** | past · progressive | the roast goose |  |  |  |  | with goose's stuffing of apple and dried plums; famously *property* | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with stuffing=Theme |
| 4 | **dry** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=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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