---
title: The poor woman built herself a little house--it was small and narrow… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The poor woman built herself a little house--it was small and narrow, and the window was quite crooked, the door too low, and the straw roof might have been better thatched. Who acts: poor woman, house, window. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Snowdrop, w
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Snowdrop, sentence 125

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The poor woman built herself a little house--it was small and narrow, and the window was quite crooked, the door too low, and the straw roof might have been better thatched.

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**Who acts:** poor woman, house, window · **What happens:** build, be, thatch · **To what, where:** woman, straw roof

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Snowdrop. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor woman, house, window), 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:pg27200:177:125
# text = The poor woman built herself a little house--it was small and narrow, and the window was quite crooked, the door too low, and the straw roof might have been better thatched.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	built	build	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	obj	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	crooked	crooked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	too	too	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	straw	straw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	_
32	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
33	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	aux	_	_
34	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	36	aux:pass	_	_
35	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	36	advmod	_	_
36	thatched	thatch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **build** | past | the poor woman | woman |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset herself=Beneficiary house=Product |
| 2 | **is** | past | house |  |  |  |  | small *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | house *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | the window |  |  |  |  | the door *obl*; crooked *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **thatch** | might · perfect · passive |  | the straw roof |  |  |  | well *property* | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: subject=Destination |

<!-- .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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