---
title: The edges of the shirt-collar were a little frayed, so the scissors… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The edges of the shirt-collar were a little frayed, so the scissors were brought to cut them smooth. " A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shirt-collar, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/168/26/)

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Shirt-collar, sentence 26

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The edges of the shirt-collar were a little frayed, so the scissors were brought to cut them smooth. "

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**What happens:** fray, bring, cut · **To what, where:** edges, scissors

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shirt-collar. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg27200:168:26
# text = The edges of the shirt-collar were a little frayed, so the scissors were brought to cut them smooth. "
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	edges	edge	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	shirt	shirt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	collar	collar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	obl:unmarked	_	_
11	frayed	fray	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	scissors	scissors	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	smooth	smooth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
23	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fray** | past · passive |  | the edges of the shirt collar |  |  |  | a little *obl:unmarked* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **bring** | past · passive |  | the scissors |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **cut** | to-infinitive |  | scissors |  |  |  | smooth *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset they=Product |

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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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