---
title: She sat down, and bent her head low over the grave, as if she could… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: She sat down, and bent her head low over the grave, as if she could see her child through the earth that covered him--her little boy, whose smile was so vividly before her, and the gentle expression of whose eyes, even on his sick-bed, she could not forget. Who acts: word, earth, smile, gentle expre
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Child in the Grave, sentence 31

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She sat down, and bent her head low over the grave, as if she could see her child through the earth that covered him--her little boy, whose smile was so vividly before her, and the gentle expression of whose eyes, even on his sick-bed, she could not forget.

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**Who acts:** word, earth, smile, gentle expression · **What happens:** sit down, bend, see, cover, be, not forget · **To what, where:** head, grave, child, earth

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Child in the Grave. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (word, earth, smile, gentle expression), 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:pg27200:17:31
# text = She sat down, and bent her head low over the grave, as if she could see her child through the earth that covered him--her little boy, whose smile was so vividly before her, and the gentle expression of whose eyes, even on his sick-bed, she could not forget.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	down	down	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	bent	bend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	low	low	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
10	over	over	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	grave	grave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
19	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	through	through	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
25	covered	cover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
29	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
32	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	smile	smile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	_
34	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	cop	_	_
35	so	so	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	vividly	vividly	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
37	before	before	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	58	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	58	cc	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
42	gentle	gentle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	expression	expression	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	nsubj	_	_
44	of	of	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	46	nmod:poss	_	_
46	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
48	even	even	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	_
49	on	on	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
50	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	53	nmod:poss	_	_
51	sick	sick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	51	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
55	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	58	nsubj	_	_
56	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	58	aux	_	_
57	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	58	advmod	_	_
58	forget	forget	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit down** | past | word |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **bend** | past | word *not said here* | word's head |  | the grave |  | low *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent head=Theme over grave=Location |
| 3 | **see** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | word | word's child |  | the earth |  | word's little boy *obl* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer child=Stimulus |
| 4 | **cover** | past | the earth |  | grave |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme he=Destination |
| 5 | **is** | past | smile |  |  |  | before field | vividly *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **forget** | could | the gentle expression of the gentle expression of the gentle expression's eyes on grave's sick bed's eyes on grave's sick bed |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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