---
title: Before them danced about barefoot the little son of the porter, with… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Before them danced about barefoot the little son of the porter, with his great brown eyes and dark hair; and the little girl smiled at him, and stretched out her hands towards him; and when the General saw that from the window, he would nod his head and cry, "Charming!" Who acts: distance, little gi
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Before them danced about barefoot the little son of the porter, with his great brown eyes and dark hair; and the little girl smiled at him, and stretched out her hands towards him; and when the General saw that from the window, he would nod his head and cry, "Charming!"

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**Who acts:** distance, little girl, General · **What happens:** dance, smile, stretch out, see, nod, cry · **To what, where:** little son, hands, that, window, head

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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 (distance, little girl, General), 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:pg27200:146:4
# text = Before them danced about barefoot the little son of the porter, with his great brown eyes and dark hair; and the little girl smiled at him, and stretched out her hands towards him; and when the General saw that from the window, he would nod his head and cry, "Charming!"
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	danced	dance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	about	about	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	barefoot	barefoot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	porter	porter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
15	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
16	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	smiled	smile	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	conj	_	_
32	out	out	ADP	RP	_	31	compound:prt	_	_
33	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	_
35	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
39	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	42	advmod	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	General	General	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
42	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
43	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	42	obj	_	_
44	from	from	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
48	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj	_	_
49	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	50	aux	_	_
50	nod	nod	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
51	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
52	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obj	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
54	cry	cry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	50	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
56	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	57	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	Charming	charming	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	57	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	57	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dance** | past | distance | the little son of the porter |  |  |  | about barefoot; with porter's great brown eyes and dark hair | tree rules |
| 2 | **smile** | past | the little girl |  |  |  |  | at porter | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **stretch out** | participle | the little girl *not said here* | girl's hands |  |  |  | towards porter | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent hand=Patient towards he=Recipient |
| 4 | **see** | past | the General | that |  | the window |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus |
| 5 | **nod** | would | General | General's head |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 6 | **cry** *speech: express* | infinitive | General *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «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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