---
title: At the church door stood an old soldier with a crutch, and with a wo… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: At the church door stood an old soldier with a crutch, and with a wonderfully long beard, which was more red than white, and he bowed to the ground, and asked the old lady whether he might dust her shoes. Who acts: long beard, sacrament. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The 
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Red Shoes, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At the church door stood an old soldier with a crutch, and with a wonderfully long beard, which was more red than white, and he bowed to the ground, and asked the old lady whether he might dust her shoes.

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**Who acts:** long beard, sacrament · **What happens:** stand, be, bow, ask, dust · **To what, where:** old soldier, church door, old lady, shoes

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Red Shoes. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (long beard, sacrament), 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:pg1597:27:32
# text = At the church door stood an old soldier with a crutch, and with a wonderfully long beard, which was more red than white, and he bowed to the ground, and asked the old lady whether he might dust her shoes.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
5	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	crutch	crutch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	wonderfully	wonderfully	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	beard	beard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	23	amod	_	_
23	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	_
24	than	than	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	iobj	_	_
39	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
40	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
41	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
42	dust	dust	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	35	xcomp	_	_
43	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
44	shoes	shoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past |  | a old soldier |  | the church door |  | with a crutch; with a long beard | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent soldier=Theme at door=Destination |
| 2 | **is** | past | a long beard |  |  |  |  | than white; red *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **bow** | past | sacrament |  |  |  |  | to the ground | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to ground=Theme |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | the old lady |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent lady=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **dust** *not said to happen* | might | sacrament | lady's shoes |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent shoe=Theme |

<!-- .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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