---
title: "You can read that from my hands," she replied, and held out her han… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "You can read that from my hands," she replied, and held out her hands, that were small indeed, but hard and strong, with bitten nails. " Who acts: You, Holberg, that. 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 179

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"You can read that from my hands," she replied, and held out her hands, that were small indeed, but hard and strong, with bitten nails. "

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**Who acts:** You, Holberg, that · **What happens:** read, reply, hold out, be, bite · **To what, where:** that, hands · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (You, Holberg, that), 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:pg27200:149:179
# text = "You can read that from my hands," she replied, and held out her hands, that were small indeed, but hard and strong, with bitten nails. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	obj	_	_
6	from	from	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
16	out	out	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
23	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	with	with	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	bitten	bite	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	32	amod	_	_
32	nails	nail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
34	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **read** *in a quote* | can | You | that |  | my hands |  | with bitten nails | tree rules |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | Holberg |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **hold out** | past | Holberg *not said here* | Holberg's hands |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | that |  |  |  |  | indeed, small *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **bite** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: 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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