---
title: An old maid stood at the window; she had hung chickweed over the cag… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: An old maid stood at the window; she had hung chickweed over the cage, and the little linnet which it contained hopped from perch to perch and sang and twittered merrily. Who acts: old maid, maid, little linnet. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bottle Nec
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Bottle Neck, sentence 4

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An old maid stood at the window; she had hung chickweed over the cage, and the little linnet which it contained hopped from perch to perch and sang and twittered merrily.

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**Who acts:** old maid, maid, little linnet · **What happens:** stand, hang, contain, hop, sing, twitter · **To what, where:** window, chickweed, cage, little linnet, perch

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bottle Neck. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old maid, maid, little linnet), 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:pg27200:13:4
# text = An old maid stood at the window; she had hung chickweed over the cage, and the little linnet which it contained hopped from perch to perch and sang and twittered merrily.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	maid	maid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	hung	hang	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
12	chickweed	chickweed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
13	over	over	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	cage	cage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	linnet	linnet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	contained	contain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
24	hopped	hop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
25	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	perch	perch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	perch	perch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	twittered	twitter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	conj	_	_
33	merrily	merrily	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | a old maid |  |  | the window |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at window=Location |
| 2 | **hang** | past · perfect | maid | chickweed |  | the cage |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent chickweed=Theme over cage=Destination |
| 3 | **contain** | past | the little linnet |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **hop** | participle · passive |  | the little linnet |  | perch |  | to perch | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Trajectory |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **twitter** | past |  |  |  |  |  | merrily *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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