---
title: They had indeed only one step higher to mount on the ladder of happi… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They had indeed only one step higher to mount on the ladder of happiness--they hoped that God would give them a child, a son like them in form and spirit. Who acts: beings, God. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 1, with its de
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 1, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They had indeed only one step higher to mount on the ladder of happiness--they hoped that God would give them a child, a son like them in form and spirit.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** beings, God · **What happens:** have, mount, hope, give · **To what, where:** ladder, child, beings, form · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, 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 (beings, God), 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:pg27200:158:9
# text = They had indeed only one step higher to mount on the ladder of happiness--they hoped that God would give them a child, a son like them in form and spirit.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
7	higher	high	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	conj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	mount	mount	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	ladder	ladder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	happiness	happiness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	hoped	hope	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	iobj	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	appos	_	_
28	like	like	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nmod	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | beings *= being* |  |  |  |  | indeed *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **mount** | to-infinitive | beings *= being* *not said here* |  |  | the ladder of happiness |  |  | vn put-9.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on ladder=Destination |
| 3 | **hope** | past | beings *= being* |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **give** | would | God | a child | beings *= being* | form and spirit |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient child=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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