---
title: It was the hand of a pedlar; he had witnessed what had happened from… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It was the hand of a pedlar; he had witnessed what had happened from a short distance, and now hastened to assist her. Who acts: hand, child. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Everything in the Right Place, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Everything in the Right Place, sentence 11

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It was the hand of a pedlar; he had witnessed what had happened from a short distance, and now hastened to assist her.

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**Who acts:** hand, child · **What happens:** be, witness, happen, hasten, assist · **To what, where:** hand, girl

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Everything in the Right Place. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hand, child), 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:pg27200:155:11
# text = It was the hand of a pedlar; he had witnessed what had happened from a short distance, and now hastened to assist her.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	pedlar	pedlar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	witnessed	witness	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
12	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
15	from	from	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	_
22	hastened	hasten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	conj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	assist	assist	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | hand | the hand |  |  |  | of a pedlar | tree rules |
| 2 | **witness** | past · perfect | child |  |  |  |  |  | vn captain-29.8-1 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **happen** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | from a short distance | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **hasten** | participle |  |  |  |  | now |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **assist** | to-infinitive |  |  | girl |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Beneficiary |

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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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