---
title: A little spider, which he could however not see, busily and cheerful… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: A little spider, which he could however not see, busily and cheerfully spun its web above him, so that there should be a kind of little banner waving over the old man, when his eyes closed. Who acts: weather, little banner, eyes. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Anders
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap, sentence 186

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A little spider, which he could however not see, busily and cheerfully spun its web above him, so that there should be a kind of little banner waving over the old man, when his eyes closed.

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**Who acts:** weather, little banner, eyes · **What happens:** not see, spin, be, wave, close · **To what, where:** little spider, web, kind

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (weather, little banner, 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:pg27200:128:186
# text = A little spider, which he could however not see, busily and cheerfully spun its web above him, so that there should be a kind of little banner waving over the old man, when his eyes closed.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	spider	spider	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
5	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	obj	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
8	however	however	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	busily	busily	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	cheerfully	cheerfully	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	spun	spin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
16	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	web	web	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	above	above	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
21	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	25	expl	_	_
24	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	cop	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	parataxis	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	banner	banner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
31	waving	wave	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	acl	_	_
32	over	over	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
37	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	40	mark	_	_
38	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nsubj	_	_
40	closed	close	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **see** | could | weather | a little spider |  |  |  | busily, however *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer which=Stimulus |
| 2 | **spin** | past | weather *not said here* | spider's web |  |  |  | above weather; cheerfully *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent web=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | infinitive |  | a kind |  |  |  | of little banner | tree rules |
| 4 | **wave** | gerund | little banner *not said here* |  |  |  |  | over the old man | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over man=Location |
| 5 | **close** | participle | weather's eyes |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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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