---
title: The old man sat down by the fire, and taking the little boy on his k… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The old man sat down by the fire, and taking the little boy on his knee, wrung the water out of his locks and warmed his hands in his own. Who acts: old man. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Saucy Boy, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Saucy Boy, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old man sat down by the fire, and taking the little boy on his knee, wrung the water out of his locks and warmed his hands in his own.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old man · **What happens:** sit down, take, wring, warm · **To what, where:** little boy, knee, water, locks, hands, own

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Saucy Boy. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man), 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:pg27200:164:17
# text = The old man sat down by the fire, and taking the little boy on his knee, wrung the water out of his locks and warmed his hands in his own.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	down	down	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	knee	knee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	wrung	wring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	out	out	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	locks	lock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	warmed	warm	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit down** | past | the old man |  |  |  |  | by the fire | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by fire=Location |
| 2 | **take** | gerund | the old man *not said here* | the little boy |  | man's knee |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent boy=Theme on knee=Destination |
| 3 | **wring** | past | the old man *not said here* | the water |  | water's locks |  |  | vn funnel-9.3-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent water=Theme out lock=Trajectory |
| 4 | **warm** | past | the old man *not said here* | water's hands |  | water's own |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent hand=Patient |

<!-- .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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