---
title: But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall--frozen to death on the last evening of the old year. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Match Girl, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/24/38/)

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Match Girl, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall--frozen to death on the last evening of the old year.

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**What happens:** sit, smile, lean, freeze · **To what, where:** poor girl, corner, wall

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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: 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:pg1597:24:38
# text = But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall--frozen to death on the last evening of the old year.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	dawn	dawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
13	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	rosy	rosy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	cheeks	cheek	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	smiling	smile	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	amod	_	_
25	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	leaning	lean	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
28	against	against	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	frozen	freeze	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	acl	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
35	on	on	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past |  | the poor girl |  | the corner and the cold hour of dawn |  | with rosy cheeks and a smiling mouth | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent girl=Theme in corner=Location |
| 2 | **smile** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **lean** | gerund |  |  |  | the wall |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent against wall=Location |
| 4 | **freeze** | participle |  | the wall *not said here* |  |  | evening | to death | 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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