---
title: The staircase was brilliantly lighted: servants carrying wax candles… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The staircase was brilliantly lighted: servants carrying wax candles in massive silver candlesticks stood there, and bowed low before an old woman, who was being brought downstairs in a litter. Who acts: servants. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-fourt
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Twenty-fourth Evening, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The staircase was brilliantly lighted: servants carrying wax candles in massive silver candlesticks stood there, and bowed low before an old woman, who was being brought downstairs in a litter.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** servants · **What happens:** light, carry, stand, bow, bring · **To what, where:** staircase, wax candles, massive silver candlesticks, old woman, litter

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-fourth Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (servants), 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:pg27200:115:8
# text = The staircase was brilliantly lighted: servants carrying wax candles in massive silver candlesticks stood there, and bowed low before an old woman, who was being brought downstairs in a litter.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	staircase	staircase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
4	brilliantly	brilliantly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	lighted	light	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
7	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
8	carrying	carry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	acl	_	_
9	wax	wax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	candles	candle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	massive	massive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	candlesticks	candlestick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
15	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
16	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	bowed	bow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
20	low	low	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	19	advmod	_	_
21	before	before	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj:pass	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
28	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	conj	_	_
30	downstairs	downstairs	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	litter	litter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **light** | past · passive |  | the staircase |  |  |  | brilliantly *property* | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Product |
| 2 | **carry** | gerund | servants *not said here* | wax candles |  | massive silver candlesticks |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent candle=Value in candlestick=Location |
| 3 | **stand** | past | servants |  |  | there |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **bow** | participle |  |  |  |  | before a old woman | low *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before woman=Location |
| 5 | **bring** | past · passive |  | a old woman |  | a litter |  | downstairs *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Destination |

<!-- .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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