---
title: In the courtyard was a grass-plot, on which grew a blooming acacia t… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: In the courtyard was a grass-plot, on which grew a blooming acacia tree (when it was in bloom), and under this tree sat occasionally the finely-dressed nurse, with the still more finely-dressed child of the General--little Emily. Who acts: grass plot, courtyard. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Ch
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1, sentence 3

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In the courtyard was a grass-plot, on which grew a blooming acacia tree (when it was in bloom), and under this tree sat occasionally the finely-dressed nurse, with the still more finely-dressed child of the General--little Emily.

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**Who acts:** grass plot, courtyard · **What happens:** be, grow, bloom, sit, dress · **To what, where:** grass plot, courtyard, blooming acacia tree, bloom, dressed nurse, tree

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (grass plot, courtyard), 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:pg27200:146:3
# text = In the courtyard was a grass-plot, on which grew a blooming acacia tree (when it was in bloom), and under this tree sat occasionally the finely-dressed nurse, with the still more finely-dressed child of the General--little Emily.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	courtyard	courtyard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	plot	plot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	blooming	bloom	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	amod	_	_
15	acacia	acacia	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
17	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	bloom	bloom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	under	under	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	det	_	_
28	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
29	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
30	occasionally	occasionally	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
32	finely	finely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	dressed	dress	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	35	amod	_	_
35	nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
37	with	with	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
39	still	still	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	41	advmod	_	_
41	finely	finely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	41	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	dressed	dress	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	44	amod	_	_
44	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	_
45	of	of	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
47	General	general	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	Emily	Emily	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	44	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a grass plot |  | the courtyard |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **grow** | past | a grass plot | a blooming acacia tree |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tree=Theme |
| 3 | **bloom** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | courtyard |  |  | bloom |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **sit** | past | a grass plot *not said here* | the dressed nurse |  | this tree |  | occasionally *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent nurse=Theme under tree=Location |
| 6 | **dress** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **dress** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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