---
title: But in the middle of the tulip stood white men, made of marble; a fe… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But in the middle of the tulip stood white men, made of marble; a few were of plaster; still, looked at with sparrows' eyes, that comes to the same thing. Who acts: eyes. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, with its dependency tree and
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 175

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But in the middle of the tulip stood white men, made of marble; a few were of plaster; still, looked at with sparrows' eyes, that comes to the same thing.

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**Who acts:** eyes · **What happens:** stand, make, be, look, come · **To what, where:** white men, middle, same thing

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Neighbouring Families. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eyes), 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:pg27200:124:175
# text = But in the middle of the tulip stood white men, made of marble; a few were of plaster; still, looked at with sparrows' eyes, that comes to the same thing.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	tulip	tulip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	marble	marble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	plaster	plaster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	still	still	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	'	's	PART	POS	_	27	case	_	_
29	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj	_	_
32	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past |  | white men |  | the middle of the tulip |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent man=Theme in middle=Destination |
| 2 | **make** | participle |  | white men *not said here* |  |  |  | of marble | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | of few plaster | tree rules |
| 4 | **look** | past |  |  |  |  | still | at sparrows's eyes | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at eye=Theme |
| 5 | **come** | present | sparrows's eyes |  |  | the same thing |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to thing=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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