---
title: They were of clay, and in the form of two elephants, with open backs… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They were of clay, and in the form of two elephants, with open backs; they were hollow and filled with earth, and through the open space flowers bloomed. Who acts: pots. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Street Lamp, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Street Lamp, sentence 84

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They were of clay, and in the form of two elephants, with open backs; they were hollow and filled with earth, and through the open space flowers bloomed.

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**Who acts:** pots · **What happens:** be, fill, bloom, form · **To what, where:** open space flowers, two elephants

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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 (pots), 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:pg27200:133:84
# text = They were of clay, and in the form of two elephants, with open backs; they were hollow and filled with earth, and through the open space flowers bloomed.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	clay	clay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	elephants	elephant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	backs	back	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	hollow	hollow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	filled	fill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
27	through	through	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
29	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
30	space	space	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	_
32	bloomed	bloom	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	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 | **is** | past | pots *= pot* |  |  |  |  | of clay | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | pots *= pot* |  |  |  |  | hollow *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **fill** | participle | pots *= pot* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with earth | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with earth=Instrument |
| 4 | **bloom** | participle | pots *= pot* *not said here* |  |  | the open space flowers |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through flower=Location |
| 5 | **form** |  |  | two elephants and open backs |  |  |  |  | nom form «communication transitive»: of=patient |

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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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