---
title: He had been turning the spit for the cook, and she had given him per… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He had been turning the spit for the cook, and she had given him permission to stand behind the door and peep in at the well-dressed children, who were having such a merry time within; and for him that was a great deal. " Who acts: boy, mamma, dressed children, that. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Ha
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/18/21/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [Children's Prattle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/18/) / 21

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Children's Prattle, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had been turning the spit for the cook, and she had given him permission to stand behind the door and peep in at the well-dressed children, who were having such a merry time within; and for him that was a great deal. "

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** boy, mamma, dressed children, that · **What happens:** turn, give, stand, dress, have, be · **To what, where:** spit, permission, boy, door, great deal

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Children's Prattle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, mamma, dressed children, that), 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:pg27200:18:21
# text = He had been turning the spit for the cook, and she had given him permission to stand behind the door and peep in at the well-dressed children, who were having such a merry time within; and for him that was a great deal. "
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	aux	_	_
4	turning	turn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	spit	spit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	cook	cook	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	_
16	permission	permission	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
19	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	peep	peep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
27	well	well	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	dressed	dress	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	amod	_	_
30	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	34	nsubj	_	_
33	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	30	acl	_	_
35	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	38	det:predet	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl:unmarked	_	_
39	within	within	ADP	IN	_	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
42	for	for	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	obl	_	_
44	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	48	nsubj	_	_
45	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	cop	_	_
46	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	48	punct	_	_
50	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	48	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past · perfect · progressive | boy | the spit |  |  |  | for the cook | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent spit=Theme |
| 2 | **give** | past · perfect | mamma | permission | boy |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient permission=Theme |
| 3 | **stand** | to-infinitive | mamma *not said here* |  |  | the door and peep |  | in the dressed children | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent behind door=Location |
| 4 | **dress** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **have** | past · progressive | the dressed children |  |  |  | time |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is a** | past | that | a great deal |  |  |  | for boy | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/18/20/)
- next →: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/18/22/)
- ↑ back to [Children's Prattle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/18/)