---
title: Twas in my arms thy lisping tongue First spoke the half-remembered w… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Twas in my arms thy lisping tongue First spoke the half-remembered word, While o'er thy tottering steps I hung, My fond protection to afford. Who acts: Twas, I, thy, My. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god, with its dependency tree and
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god, sentence 54

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Twas in my arms thy lisping tongue First spoke the half-remembered word, While o'er thy tottering steps I hung, My fond protection to afford.

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**Who acts:** Twas, I, thy, My · **What happens:** speak, remember, totter, hang, afford, step · **To what, where:** remembered word, fond protection · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Twas, I, thy, My), 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:pg27200:134:54
# text = Twas in my arms thy lisping tongue First spoke the half-remembered word, While o'er thy tottering steps I hung, My fond protection to afford.
1	Twas	twa	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	nmod	_	_
5	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	lisping	lisping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	First	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	9	advmod	_	_
9	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
11	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	remembered	remember	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	amod	_	_
14	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
17	o'er	o'er	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	tottering	totter	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	amod	_	_
20	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	hung	hang	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	protection	protection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	afford	afford	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | Twas in my arms  thy lisping tongue | the remembered word |  |  |  | first *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **remember** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **totter** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn body\_internal\_motion-49.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **hang** | past | I | My fond protection |  |  |  | o'er thy tottering steps | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **afford** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | My fond protection *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **step** |  | thy |  |  |  |  |  | nom step «act transitive»: poss=agent |
| 7 | **protect** |  | My |  |  |  |  |  | nom protection «act transitive»: poss=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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