---
title: And Karen could not help dancing a step or two, and when she began h… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And Karen could not help dancing a step or two, and when she began her feet continued to dance; it was just as though the shoes had power over them. Who acts: Karen, feet, shoes, step. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Red Shoes, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Red Shoes, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And Karen could not help dancing a step or two, and when she began her feet continued to dance; it was just as though the shoes had power over them.

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**Who acts:** Karen, feet, shoes, step · **What happens:** not help, dance, begin, continue, have, be · **To what, where:** step, power

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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 (Karen, feet, shoes, step), 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:pg1597:27:41
# text = And Karen could not help dancing a step or two, and when she began her feet continued to dance; it was just as though the shoes had power over them.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	Karen	Karen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	dancing	dance	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	xcomp	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	continued	continue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	dance	dance	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
24	just	just	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	as	as	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
26	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	shoes	shoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
29	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
30	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
31	over	over	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **help** | could | Karen |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **dance** *not said to happen* | gerund | Karen *not said here* | a step |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location step=Theme |
| 3 | **begin** | past | Karen |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 4 | **continue** | past | Karen's feet |  |  |  |  |  | vn continue-55.3 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **dance** | to-infinitive | Karen's feet *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **have** | past | the shoes |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is a** | past | step | power |  |  |  | over shoes *= shoe* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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