---
title: They came nearer and nearer, and stretched out their hands towards t… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They came nearer and nearer, and stretched out their hands towards the tree on which the doll sat; they laughed scornfully, and pointed at her with their fingers. Who acts: gnomes, doll. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-first Evening, with its dependen
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Twenty-first Evening, sentence 14

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They came nearer and nearer, and stretched out their hands towards the tree on which the doll sat; they laughed scornfully, and pointed at her with their fingers.

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**Who acts:** gnomes, doll · **What happens:** come, stretch out, sit, laugh, point · **To what, where:** hands, tree

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-first Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gnomes, doll), 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:pg27200:112:14
# text = They came nearer and nearer, and stretched out their hands towards the tree on which the doll sat; they laughed scornfully, and pointed at her with their fingers.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	xcomp	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
12	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	obl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	doll	doll	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
23	scornfully	scornfully	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	pointed	point	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | gnomes *= gnome* |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **stretch out** | participle | gnomes *= gnome* *not said here* | gnomes's hands |  |  |  | towards the tree | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent hand=Patient towards tree=Recipient |
| 3 | **sit** | past | the doll |  |  | the tree |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on which=Location |
| 4 | **laugh** | past | gnomes *= gnome* |  |  |  |  | scornfully *property* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **point** | past | gnomes *= gnome* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at doll; with gnomes's fingers | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=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:** «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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