---
title: The old box that lies yonder may be the back stairs; and we'll lay t… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The old box that lies yonder may be the back stairs; and we'll lay the flooring on top of it. Who acts: old box. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, In the Nursery, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, In the Nursery, sentence 8

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The old box that lies yonder may be the back stairs; and we'll lay the flooring on top of it.

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**Who acts:** old box · **What happens:** lie, be, lay · **To what, where:** back stairs, flooring, top

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, In the Nursery. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old box), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg27200:127:8
# text = The old box that lies yonder may be the back stairs; and we'll lay the flooring on top of it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	lies	lie	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
6	yonder	yonder	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	cop	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	stairs	stair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	'll	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	flooring	flooring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | present | the old box |  |  |  |  | yonder *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | may |  | the back stairs |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **lay** | future | the old box | the flooring |  | top of top |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent flooring=Theme on top=Destination |

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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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