---
title: The poor horses, tortured almost to death, suffered most from this t… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The poor horses, tortured almost to death, suffered most from this truly Egyptian plague; the flies alighted upon them in large disgusting swarms; and if the coachman got down and scraped them off, hardly a minute elapsed before they were there again. Who acts: poor horses, coachman, flies. A senten
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shoes of Fortune, part 5, sentence 83

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The poor horses, tortured almost to death, suffered most from this truly Egyptian plague; the flies alighted upon them in large disgusting swarms; and if the coachman got down and scraped them off, hardly a minute elapsed before they were there again.

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**Who acts:** poor horses, coachman, flies · **What happens:** torture, suffer, alight, get down, scrape off, elapse · **To what, where:** poor horses, most, Egyptian plague, flies, large disgusting swarms, minute

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor horses, coachman, flies), 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:pg1597:9:83
# text = The poor horses, tortured almost to death, suffered most from this truly Egyptian plague; the flies alighted upon them in large disgusting swarms; and if the coachman got down and scraped them off, hardly a minute elapsed before they were there again.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	tortured	torture	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
6	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	suffered	suffer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	10	obj	_	_
12	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	det	_	_
14	truly	truly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	Egyptian	Egyptian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	plague	plague	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	flies	fly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
20	alighted	alight	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl	_	_
21	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	disgusting	disgusting	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	swarms	swarm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	32	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
29	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	coachman	coachman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
32	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
33	down	down	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	scraped	scrape	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	conj	_	_
36	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obj	_	_
37	off	off	ADP	RP	_	35	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
39	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
40	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	minute	minute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl:unmarked	_	_
42	elapsed	elapse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	41	acl	_	_
43	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
44	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
45	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	cop	_	_
46	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	42	advmod	_	_
47	again	again	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **torture** | participle |  | the poor horses *not said here* |  |  |  | to death | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **suffer** | past | the poor horses | most |  | this Egyptian plague |  | the flies *obl* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer most=Stimulus |
| 3 | **alight** | participle |  | the flies *not said here* |  | large disgusting swarms |  | upon flies *= fly* | tree rules |
| 4 | **get down** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | the coachman |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **scrape off** | past | the coachman *not said here* | flies *= fly* |  |  | minute |  | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 6 | **elapse** | participle |  | a minute *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **is** | past | flies *= fly* |  |  |  | again | there *property* | 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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