---
title: On the bridge over the canal stood three persons, who wished to reco… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: On the bridge over the canal stood three persons, who wished to recommend themselves to the lamp, for they thought he could give the office to whomsoever he chose. Who acts: three persons, persons, sentry. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Street Lamp,
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Street Lamp, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On the bridge over the canal stood three persons, who wished to recommend themselves to the lamp, for they thought he could give the office to whomsoever he chose.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** three persons, persons, sentry · **What happens:** stand, wish, recommend, think, give, choose · **To what, where:** three persons, bridge, persons, lamp, office, whomsoever · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Street Lamp. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (three persons, persons, sentry), 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:pg27200:133:29
# text = On the bridge over the canal stood three persons, who wished to recommend themselves to the lamp, for they thought he could give the office to whomsoever he chose.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	over	over	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	canal	canal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	persons	person	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	recommend	recommend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	14	obj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	lamp	lamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	ccomp	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	office	office	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	whomsoever	whomsoever	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	chose	choose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past |  | three persons |  | the bridge over the canal |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent person=Theme on bridge=Destination |
| 2 | **wish** | past | three persons |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **recommend** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | three persons *not said here* | persons *= person* | the lamp |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent themselves=Topic to lamp=Recipient |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | persons *= person* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **give** | could | sentry | the office | whomsoever |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent office=Theme to whomsoever=Recipient |
| 6 | **choose** | past | sentry | whomsoever *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whomsoever=Theme |

<!-- .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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