---
title: He had hardly uttered these hasty words when the skirts and sleeves… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He had hardly uttered these hasty words when the skirts and sleeves of his coat folded themselves together into wings; the clothes became feathers, and the galoshes claws. Who acts: botanist, skirts, clothes. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, part 4, wit
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shoes of Fortune, part 4, sentence 86

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He had hardly uttered these hasty words when the skirts and sleeves of his coat folded themselves together into wings; the clothes became feathers, and the galoshes claws.

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**Who acts:** botanist, skirts, clothes · **What happens:** utter, fold, become · **To what, where:** hasty words, skirts, wings, feathers

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (botanist, skirts, clothes), 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:pg1597:8:86
# text = He had hardly uttered these hasty words when the skirts and sleeves of his coat folded themselves together into wings; the clothes became feathers, and the galoshes claws.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	uttered	utter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
6	hasty	hasty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	skirts	skirt	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	sleeves	sleeve	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	conj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	coat	coat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
16	folded	fold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
17	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	obj	_	_
18	together	together	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
19	into	into	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	24	nsubj	_	_
24	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
25	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	galoshes	galosh	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	compound	_	_
30	claws	claw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **utter** *speech: other* | past · perfect | botanist | this hasty words |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic |
| 2 | **fold** | past | the skirts of botanist's coat and sleeves | skirts *= skirt* |  |  |  | into wings *result*; together *property* | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent themselves=Patient into wing=Result |
| 3 | **become** | past | the clothes | feathers |  |  |  | galoshes claws *obl* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: 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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