---
title: It had been sawn off at the top, and a stork had built his nest upon… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It had been sawn off at the top, and a stork had built his nest upon it; and he stood in this nest clapping with his beak. Who acts: stork. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Thirteenth Evening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Thirteenth Evening, sentence 6

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It had been sawn off at the top, and a stork had built his nest upon it; and he stood in this nest clapping with his beak.

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**Who acts:** stork · **What happens:** sawn off, build, stand, clap · **To what, where:** tree, top, stork, nest

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Thirteenth Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stork), 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:pg27200:104:6
# text = It had been sawn off at the top, and a stork had built his nest upon it; and he stood in this nest clapping with his beak.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	sawn	sawn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	off	off	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	stork	stork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	built	build	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	25	det	_	_
25	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	clapping	clap	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	beak	beak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sawn off** | past · perfect · passive |  | tree |  | the top |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **build** | past · perfect · passive |  | a stork |  |  |  | upon tree | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: subject=Beneficiary nest=Product |
| 3 | **stand** | past | stork |  |  | this nest |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in nest=Location |
| 4 | **clap** | gerund | stork *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with stork's beak | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with beak=Theme |

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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:** «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.

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