---
title: At the church door stood an old crippled soldier leaning on a crutch… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: At the church door stood an old crippled soldier leaning on a crutch; he had a wonderfully long beard, more red than white, and he bowed down to the ground and asked the old lady whether he might wipe her shoes. Who acts: old crippled soldier, instep. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian And
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Red Shoes, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At the church door stood an old crippled soldier leaning on a crutch; he had a wonderfully long beard, more red than white, and he bowed down to the ground and asked the old lady whether he might wipe her shoes.

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**Who acts:** old crippled soldier, instep · **What happens:** stand, lean, have, bow down, ask, wipe · **To what, where:** old crippled soldier, church door, crutch, long beard, old lady, shoes

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Red Shoes. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old crippled soldier, instep), 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:pg27200:154:33
# text = At the church door stood an old crippled soldier leaning on a crutch; he had a wonderfully long beard, more red than white, and he bowed down to the ground and asked the old lady whether he might wipe her shoes.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
5	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
8	crippled	crippled	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
10	leaning	lean	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	acl	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	crutch	crutch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	wonderfully	wonderfully	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	beard	beard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	23	amod	_	_
23	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	_
24	than	than	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
30	down	down	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	iobj	_	_
39	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
40	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
41	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
42	wipe	wipe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	xcomp	_	_
43	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
44	shoes	shoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past |  | a old crippled soldier |  | the church door |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent soldier=Theme at door=Destination |
| 2 | **lean** | gerund | a old crippled soldier *not said here* |  |  | a crutch |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on crutch=Location |
| 3 | **have** | past | instep | a long beard |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent beard=Patient |
| 4 | **bow down** | past | instep |  |  |  |  | to the ground; down *property* | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to ground=Theme |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | the old lady |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent lady=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **wipe** *not said to happen* | might | instep | lady's shoes |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent shoe=Theme |

<!-- .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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