---
title: An elder-tree hangs over the palings; and beneath its branches, at t… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: An elder-tree hangs over the palings; and beneath its branches, at the foot of the paling, is a pool of water, in which a few ducks are disporting themselves. Who acts: elder tree, few ducks. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What the Old Man Does Is Always Ri
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, What the Old Man Does Is Always Right, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
An elder-tree hangs over the palings; and beneath its branches, at the foot of the paling, is a pool of water, in which a few ducks are disporting themselves.

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**Who acts:** elder tree, few ducks · **What happens:** hang, be, disport · **To what, where:** palings, pool, ducks

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What the Old Man Does Is Always Right. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (elder tree, few ducks), 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:pg27200:132:7
# text = An elder-tree hangs over the palings; and beneath its branches, at the foot of the paling, is a pool of water, in which a few ducks are disporting themselves.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	elder	elder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	hangs	hang	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	over	over	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	palings	paling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	paling	paling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	pool	pool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	parataxis	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	34	obl	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	ducks	duck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
33	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	disporting	disport	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	acl	_	_
35	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hang** | present | a elder tree |  |  | the palings |  | beneath tree's branches | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over paling=Location |
| 2 | **is a** | present |  | a pool |  |  |  | of water | tree rules |
| 3 | **disport** | present · progressive | a few ducks | ducks *= duck* |  | a pool |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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