---
title: She loosened little Gerda's dress, and took off the fur boots and th… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: She loosened little Gerda's dress, and took off the fur boots and the mittens, or Gerda would have been unable to bear the heat; and then she placed a piece of ice on the reindeer's head, and read what was written on the dried fish. Who acts: woman, Gerda. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christia
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Lapland Woman and the Finland Woman, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She loosened little Gerda's dress, and took off the fur boots and the mittens, or Gerda would have been unable to bear the heat; and then she placed a piece of ice on the reindeer's head, and read what was written on the dried fish.

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**Who acts:** woman, Gerda · **What happens:** loosen, take off, be, bear, place, read · **To what, where:** dress, fur boots, heat, piece, head

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Lapland Woman and the Finland Woman. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman, Gerda), 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:pg27200:175:13
# text = She loosened little Gerda's dress, and took off the fur boots and the mittens, or Gerda would have been unable to bear the heat; and then she placed a piece of ice on the reindeer's head, and read what was written on the dried fish.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	loosened	loosen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	Gerda	Gerda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	's	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	dress	dress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
10	off	off	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	fur	fur	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	boots	boot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	mittens	mitten	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
19	Gerda	Gerda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
21	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux	_	_
22	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	cop	_	_
23	unable	unable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	heat	heat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	32	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	32	advmod	_	_
31	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	_
37	on	on	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	reindeer	reindeer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	's	's	PART	POS	_	39	case	_	_
41	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
44	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	advcl	_	_
45	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	47	nsubj:pass	_	_
46	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	aux:pass	_	_
47	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	44	ccomp	_	_
48	on	on	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
50	dried	dry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	51	amod	_	_
51	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **loosen** | past | woman | little Gerda's dress |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent dress=Patient |
| 2 | **take off** | past |  | the fur boots and the mittens |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boot=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | would · perfect | Gerda |  |  |  |  | unable *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **bear** | to-infinitive | Gerda *not said here* | the heat |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heat=Patient |
| 5 | **place** | past | woman | a piece of ice |  | the reindeer's head | then |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent piece=Theme on head=Destination |
| 6 | **read** | infinitive | woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 7 | **write** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  | on the dried fish | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on fish=Destination |
| 8 | **dry** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=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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