---
title: And while she went on combing little Gerda's hair, she thought less… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: And while she went on combing little Gerda's hair, she thought less and less about her adopted brother Kay, for the old woman could conjure, although she was not a wicked witch; she conjured only a little for her own amusement, and now, because she wanted to keep Gerda. Who acts: woman, old woman. A
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Flower Garden of the Woman Who Could Conjure, sentence 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And while she went on combing little Gerda's hair, she thought less and less about her adopted brother Kay, for the old woman could conjure, although she was not a wicked witch; she conjured only a little for her own amusement, and now, because she wanted to keep Gerda.

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**Who acts:** woman, old woman · **What happens:** go, comb, think, adopt, conjure, not be · **To what, where:** hair, wicked witch, little, Gerda

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flower Garden of the Woman Who Could Conjure. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman, old woman), 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:pg27200:172:43
# text = And while she went on combing little Gerda's hair, she thought less and less about her adopted brother Kay, for the old woman could conjure, although she was not a wicked witch; she conjured only a little for her own amusement, and now, because she wanted to keep Gerda.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
2	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
5	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
6	combing	comb	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	Gerda	Gerda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	13	advmod	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	14	conj	_	_
17	about	about	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	adopted	adopt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	amod	_	_
20	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
21	Kay	Kay	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	conjure	conjure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
30	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
31	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
33	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	36	advmod	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
38	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	conjured	conjure	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
40	only	only	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
41	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	obl:unmarked	_	_
43	for	for	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
44	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	46	nmod:poss	_	_
45	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
46	amusement	amusement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
48	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
49	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	53	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
51	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	53	mark	_	_
52	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj	_	_
53	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	conj	_	_
54	to	to	PART	TO	_	55	mark	_	_
55	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	53	xcomp	_	_
56	Gerda	Gerda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	55	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **comb** | gerund | woman *not said here* | little Gerda's hair |  |  |  |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hair=Patient |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | woman |  |  |  |  | about woman's adopted brother; less *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about brother=Topic |
| 4 | **adopt** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **conjure** | could | the old woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **not** **is a** | past | woman | a wicked witch |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **conjure** | past | woman | a little for woman's own amusement |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **want** | past | woman |  |  |  | now |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 9 | **keep** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | woman *not said here* | Gerda |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gerda=Theme |
| 10 | **amuse** |  | woman |  |  |  |  |  | nom amusement «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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