---
title: At the back of the cart stood a fir tree, quite green still, and wit… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: At the back of the cart stood a fir tree, quite green still, and with tinsel on its twigs; it had been used on Christmas eve, and now it was thrown out into the street, and the dustman had stood it up at the back of his cart. Who acts: dustman. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Third Visit, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At the back of the cart stood a fir tree, quite green still, and with tinsel on its twigs; it had been used on Christmas eve, and now it was thrown out into the street, and the dustman had stood it up at the back of his cart.

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**Who acts:** dustman · **What happens:** stand, use, throw out, stand up · **To what, where:** fir tree, back, cart, Christmas eve, street

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Third Visit. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dustman), 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:pg27200:138:10
# text = At the back of the cart stood a fir tree, quite green still, and with tinsel on its twigs; it had been used on Christmas eve, and now it was thrown out into the street, and the dustman had stood it up at the back of his cart.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	cart	cart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	fir	fir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
14	still	still	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	tinsel	tinsel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	twigs	twig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	Christmas	Christmas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	eve	eve	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
32	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	35	advmod	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj:pass	_	_
34	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux:pass	_	_
35	thrown	throw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	conj	_	_
36	out	out	ADP	RP	_	35	compound:prt	_	_
37	into	into	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	dustman	dustman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nsubj	_	_
44	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	45	aux	_	_
45	stood	stand	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	26	conj	_	_
46	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	obj	_	_
47	up	up	ADP	RP	_	45	compound:prt	_	_
48	at	at	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	_
51	of	of	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
52	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	53	nmod:poss	_	_
53	cart	cart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past |  | a fir tree |  | the back of the cart |  | with tinsel on cart's twigs | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent tree=Theme at back=Destination |
| 2 | **use** | past · perfect · passive |  | cart |  | Christmas eve |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **throw out** | past · passive |  | cart |  |  | now | into the street *result* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: subject=Theme into street=Result |
| 4 | **stand up** | past · perfect | the dustman | cart |  | the back of dustman's cart |  |  | 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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