---
title: A white hen, who had a brood of chickens, was fastened to the bench,… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: A white hen, who had a brood of chickens, was fastened to the bench, and had overturned the pipkin of water, so that the wet ran across the floor. Who acts: white hen. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family, sentence 161

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A white hen, who had a brood of chickens, was fastened to the bench, and had overturned the pipkin of water, so that the wet ran across the floor.

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**Who acts:** white hen · **What happens:** have, fasten, overturn, run · **To what, where:** brood, white hen, pipkin, floor

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (white hen), 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:pg27200:149:161
# text = A white hen, who had a brood of chickens, was fastened to the bench, and had overturned the pipkin of water, so that the wet ran across the floor.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	hen	hen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	brood	brood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	chickens	chicken	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	fastened	fasten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	bench	bench	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	overturned	overturn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	pipkin	pipkin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	29	mark	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	fixed	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	advcl	_	_
30	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	parataxis	_	_
31	across	across	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | a white hen | a brood of chickens |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brood=Patient |
| 2 | **fasten** | past · passive |  | a white hen |  |  |  | to the bench | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP PP»: subject=Patient to bench=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **overturn** | past · perfect |  | the pipkin of water |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **run** | past |  |  |  | the floor |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme across floor=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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