---
title: He stood holding his ladder quite handily, and his face was as fair… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He stood holding his ladder quite handily, and his face was as fair and rosy as a girl's; indeed, that was rather a mistake, it should have had some black marks on it. Who acts: beard, face, that. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shepherdess and the Sheep
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Shepherdess and the Sheep, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He stood holding his ladder quite handily, and his face was as fair and rosy as a girl's; indeed, that was rather a mistake, it should have had some black marks on it.

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**Who acts:** beard, face, that · **What happens:** stand, hold, be, have · **To what, where:** ladder, mistake, black marks

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shepherdess and the Sheep. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (beard, face, that), 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:pg27200:166:12
# text = He stood holding his ladder quite handily, and his face was as fair and rosy as a girl's; indeed, that was rather a mistake, it should have had some black marks on it.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	xcomp	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	ladder	ladder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	handily	handily	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	rosy	rosy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	_
17	as	as	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	's	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
22	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
26	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	mistake	mistake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
31	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	aux	_	_
33	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	_
34	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	36	det	_	_
35	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	marks	mark	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obj	_	_
37	on	on	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | beard |  |  |  |  | indeed *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **hold** | gerund | beard *not said here* | beard's ladder |  |  |  | handily *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ladder=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | beard's face |  |  |  |  | fair *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | beard's face *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** | past | that | a mistake |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **have** | should · perfect | face | some black marks |  | mistake |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mark=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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