---
title: Out of his box, in which were the most beautiful colours, the old ma… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Out of his box, in which were the most beautiful colours, the old man took a quantity of shining leaf-gold, while the boys had to go and fetch some white of egg, with which the sparrow was to be smeared all over; the gold was stuck on to this, and the sparrow-mother was now gilded all over. Who acts
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 73

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Out of his box, in which were the most beautiful colours, the old man took a quantity of shining leaf-gold, while the boys had to go and fetch some white of egg, with which the sparrow was to be smeared all over; the gold was stuck on to this, and the sparrow-mother was now gilded all over.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** box, old man, quantity, boys · **What happens:** be, take, shine, have, go, fetch · **To what, where:** beautiful colours, quantity, box, leaf gold, white, sparrow

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (box, old man, quantity, boys), 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:pg27200:124:73
# text = Out of his box, in which were the most beautiful colours, the old man took a quantity of shining leaf-gold, while the boys had to go and fetch some white of egg, with which the sparrow was to be smeared all over; the gold was stuck on to this, and the sparrow-mother was now gilded all over.
1	Out	out	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	11	advmod	_	_
11	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	colours	colour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	quantity	quantity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	shining	shine	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	acl	_	_
22	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
29	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	fetch	fetch	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
34	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	35	det	_	_
35	white	white	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
39	with	with	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	46	obl	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nsubj:pass	_	_
43	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
44	to	to	PART	TO	_	46	mark	_	_
45	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	aux:pass	_	_
46	smeared	smear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	advcl	_	_
47	all	all	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
48	over	over	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
50	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
51	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nsubj:pass	_	_
52	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	53	aux:pass	_	_
53	stuck	stick	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	parataxis	_	_
54	on	on	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	to	to	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
56	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	53	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	65	punct	_	_
58	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	65	cc	_	_
59	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	62	det	_	_
60	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	62	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	60	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	65	nsubj:pass	_	_
63	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	65	aux:pass	_	_
64	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	65	advmod	_	_
65	gilded	gild	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	53	conj	_	_
66	all	all	ADV	RB	_	67	advmod	_	_
67	over	over	ADV	RB	_	65	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
68	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | word's box and the beautiful colours | the beautiful colours |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | past | the old man | a quantity |  | word's box and the beautiful colours |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent quantity=Theme out box=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **shine** | gerund | a quantity *not said here* | leaf gold |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent gold=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past | the boys |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **go** | to-infinitive | the boys *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **fetch** | infinitive | the boys *not said here* | some white of egg |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent white=Theme |
| 7 | **smear** | past · passive |  | the sparrow |  |  |  | over *property* | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: subject=Destination with which=Theme |
| 8 | **stick** | past · passive |  | the gold |  | this |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on this=Destination |
| 9 | **gild** | past · passive |  | the sparrow mother |  |  | now | over *property* | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: 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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