---
title: He sat down close under me, and played with two little sticks as if… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He sat down close under me, and played with two little sticks as if they had been a stringed instrument; and he sang to it. ' Who acts: monk, sticks. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bell-deep, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/10/27/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Bell-deep](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/10/) / 27

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Bell-deep, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He sat down close under me, and played with two little sticks as if they had been a stringed instrument; and he sang to it. '

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** monk, sticks · **What happens:** sit down, play, be, sing · **To what, where:** stringed instrument, instrument

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bell-deep. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (monk, sticks), 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:pg27200:10:27
# text = He sat down close under me, and played with two little sticks as if they had been a stringed instrument; and he sang to it. '
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	down	down	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
5	under	under	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	played	play	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
12	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	sticks	stick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
18	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	cop	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	stringed	stringed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	instrument	instrument	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	_
29	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit down** | past | monk |  |  |  |  | close, down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **play** | past | monk *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with two little sticks | vn play-114.2-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with stick=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | past · perfect | sticks *= stick* | a stringed instrument |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | monk |  | instrument |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to it=Recipient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/10/26/)
- next →: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/10/28/)
- ↑ back to [The Bell-deep](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/10/)