---
title: The portraits of the old citizens became alive, stepped down from th… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The portraits of the old citizens became alive, stepped down from the walls against which they had hung for centuries, and took seats near the church door. Who acts: portraits. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 6, with its dep
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 6, sentence 5

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The portraits of the old citizens became alive, stepped down from the walls against which they had hung for centuries, and took seats near the church door.

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**Who acts:** portraits · **What happens:** become, step down, hang, take, portray · **To what, where:** walls, portraits, seats, church door, old citizens

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (portraits), 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:pg27200:163:5
# text = The portraits of the old citizens became alive, stepped down from the walls against which they had hung for centuries, and took seats near the church door.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	portraits	portrait	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	citizens	citizen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
7	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	stepped	step	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	xcomp	_	_
11	down	down	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	from	from	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
15	against	against	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	obl	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	hung	hang	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl:relcl	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	centuries	century	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
25	seats	seat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
26	near	near	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | past | the portraits of the old citizens |  |  |  |  | alive *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **step down** | participle | the portraits of the old citizens *not said here* |  |  | the walls |  |  | vn resign-10.11 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **hang** | past · perfect · passive |  | portraits *= portrait* |  | the walls | century |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme against which=Destination |
| 4 | **take** | past | the portraits of the old citizens *not said here* | seats |  | the church door |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent seat=Theme |
| 5 | **portray** |  |  | the old citizens |  |  |  |  | nom portrait «communication transitive»: of=patient |

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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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