---
title: He now fluttered down into the grass, turned his head gracefully on… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He now fluttered down into the grass, turned his head gracefully on every side, and with his bill pecked the pliant blades of grass, which, in comparison to his present size, seemed as majestic as the palm-branches of northern Africa. Who acts: doubt. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. 
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shoes of Fortune, part 4, sentence 93

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He now fluttered down into the grass, turned his head gracefully on every side, and with his bill pecked the pliant blades of grass, which, in comparison to his present size, seemed as majestic as the palm-branches of northern Africa.

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**Who acts:** doubt · **What happens:** flutter down, turn, peck, seem, bill · **To what, where:** grass, head, side, pliant blades

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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 (doubt), 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:pg1597:8:93
# text = He now fluttered down into the grass, turned his head gracefully on every side, and with his bill pecked the pliant blades of grass, which, in comparison to his present size, seemed as majestic as the palm-branches of northern Africa.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	fluttered	flutter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	into	into	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	gracefully	gracefully	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
15	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	bill	bill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
21	pecked	peck	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	pliant	pliant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	blades	blade	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	comparison	comparison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
34	present	present	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
37	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
38	as	as	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	majestic	majestic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	xcomp	_	_
40	as	as	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
42	palm	palm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	42	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	obl	_	_
45	of	of	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
46	northern	northern	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	Africa	Africa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	44	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **flutter down** | past | doubt |  |  | the grass | now | down *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **turn** | past | doubt *not said here* | doubt's head |  | every side |  | gracefully *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent head=Theme |
| 3 | **peck** | past | doubt *not said here* | the pliant blades of grass and comparison to doubt's present size |  |  |  | with doubt's bill | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent blade=Patient with bill=Instrument |
| 4 | **seem** | past | doubt *not said here* |  |  |  |  | majestic *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **bill** |  | doubt |  |  |  |  |  | nom bill «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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