---
title: The maids often laid the clean copper saucepans and kitchen vessels… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The maids often laid the clean copper saucepans and kitchen vessels on this stone, that they might dry in the sun, and the children were fond of playing on it. Who acts: maids, children. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Grave-stone, with its dependenc
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Grave-stone, sentence 4

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The maids often laid the clean copper saucepans and kitchen vessels on this stone, that they might dry in the sun, and the children were fond of playing on it.

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**Who acts:** maids, children · **What happens:** lay, dry, be, play · **To what, where:** clean copper saucepans, stone, sun

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Grave-stone. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (maids, children), 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:pg27200:130:4
# text = The maids often laid the clean copper saucepans and kitchen vessels on this stone, that they might dry in the sun, and the children were fond of playing on it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	maids	maid	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	often	often	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	clean	clean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	copper	copper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	saucepans	saucepan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	vessels	vessel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	det	_	_
14	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	dry	dry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
28	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
29	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
30	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	advcl	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lay** | past | the maids | the clean copper saucepans and kitchen vessels |  | this stone |  | often *property* | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent saucepan=Theme on stone=Destination |
| 2 | **dry** | might | maids *= maid* |  |  | the sun |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | the children |  |  |  |  | fond *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **play** | gerund | the children *not said here* |  |  | stone |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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