---
title: For hours together, when his mother was spinning, he would sit quiet… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: For hours together, when his mother was spinning, he would sit quietly by her side, watching the murmuring spindle and the revolving wheel, and as he sat he thought of many things. Who acts: mother, pendulum. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-third Even
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Twenty-third Evening, sentence 9

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For hours together, when his mother was spinning, he would sit quietly by her side, watching the murmuring spindle and the revolving wheel, and as he sat he thought of many things.

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**Who acts:** mother, pendulum · **What happens:** spin, sit, watch, think · **To what, where:** murmuring spindle

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-third Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mother, pendulum), 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:pg27200:114:9
# text = For hours together, when his mother was spinning, he would sit quietly by her side, watching the murmuring spindle and the revolving wheel, and as he sat he thought of many things.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
3	together	together	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	9	mark	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
14	quietly	quietly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	by	by	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	murmuring	murmuring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	spindle	spindle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	revolving	revolving	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	wheel	wheel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spin** | past · progressive | pendulum's mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **sit** | would | pendulum |  |  |  | hour | by mother's side; quietly, together *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by side=Location |
| 3 | **watch** | gerund | pendulum *not said here* | the murmuring spindle and the revolving wheel |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spindle=Theme |
| 4 | **sit** | past | pendulum |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | past | pendulum |  |  |  |  | of many things | vn focus-87.1-1 «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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