---
title: Chairs handsomely carved, with elbows on each side, and with very hi… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Chairs handsomely carved, with elbows on each side, and with very high backs, stood in the room, and as they creaked they seemed to say, "Sit down. Who acts: Chairs. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old House, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old House, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Chairs handsomely carved, with elbows on each side, and with very high backs, stood in the room, and as they creaked they seemed to say, "Sit down.

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**Who acts:** Chairs · **What happens:** carve, stand, creak, seem, say, sit down · **To what, where:** room · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old House. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Chairs), 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:pg27200:131:38
# text = Chairs handsomely carved, with elbows on each side, and with very high backs, stood in the room, and as they creaked they seemed to say, "Sit down.
1	Chairs	chair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	handsomely	handsomely	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	carved	carve	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	elbows	elbow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	9	det	_	_
9	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	very	very	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	backs	back	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
17	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	creaked	creak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	advcl	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	Sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	ccomp	_	_
33	down	down	ADP	RP	_	32	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carve** | past | Chairs |  |  |  |  | with elbows on each side; handsomely *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **stand** | past | Chairs *not said here* |  |  | the room |  | with high backs | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in room=Location |
| 3 | **creak** | past | Chairs *= chair* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **seem** | past | Chairs *= chair* |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | Chairs *= chair* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **sit down** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «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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