---
title: Close by, on the grass, stood a group of peacocks, with radiant tail… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Close by, on the grass, stood a group of peacocks, with radiant tails outspread to the sun. The prince touched them, and found, to his surprise, that they were not really birds, but the leaves of the burdock tree, which shone with the colors of a peacock's tail. Who acts: radiant tails, prince, tail
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Garden of Paradise, sentence 170

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Close by, on the grass, stood a group of peacocks, with radiant tails outspread to the sun. The prince touched them, and found, to his surprise, that they were not really birds, but the leaves of the burdock tree, which shone with the colors of a peacock's tail.

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**Who acts:** radiant tails, prince, tails, leaves · **What happens:** stand, outspread, touch, find, not be, shine · **To what, where:** group, grass, tails, birds

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Garden of Paradise. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (radiant tails, prince, tails, leaves), 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:pg27200:140:170
# text = Close by, on the grass, stood a group of peacocks, with radiant tails outspread to the sun. The prince touched them, and found, to his surprise, that they were not really birds, but the leaves of the burdock tree, which shone with the colors of a peacock's tail.
1	Close	close	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
2	by	by	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	group	group	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	peacocks	peacock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	radiant	radiant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	outspread	outspread	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	sun.	Sunday	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
33	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
34	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
35	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	cop	_	_
36	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	38	advmod	_	_
37	really	really	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
40	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	nsubj	_	_
43	of	of	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
45	burdock	burdock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	compound	_	_
46	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
48	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	49	nsubj	_	_
49	shone	shine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
50	with	with	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
52	colors	color	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	obl	_	_
53	of	of	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
54	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	peacock	peacock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	's	's	PART	POS	_	55	case	_	_
57	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past |  | a group of peacocks |  | the grass |  | close *property* | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent group=Theme on grass=Destination |
| 2 | **outspread** | present | radiant tails |  |  |  | sunday |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **touch** | past | the prince | tails *= tail* |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme they=Co-Theme |
| 4 | **find** | past |  |  |  |  |  | to prince's surprise | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **is a** | past | tails *= tail* | birds |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **shine** | past | the leaves of the burdock tree |  |  |  |  | with the colors of a peacock's tail | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with color=Theme |
| 7 | **surprise** |  | prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom surprise «feeling 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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