---
title: Then the mother wrung her hands, fell on her knees, and prayed to Go… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the mother wrung her hands, fell on her knees, and prayed to God, "Grant not my prayers, when they are contrary to Thy will, which at all times must be the best. Who acts: mother, prayers, my. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of a Mother, with 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Story of a Mother, sentence 106

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Then the mother wrung her hands, fell on her knees, and prayed to God, "Grant not my prayers, when they are contrary to Thy will, which at all times must be the best.

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**Who acts:** mother, prayers, my · **What happens:** wring, fall, pray, be · **To what, where:** hands, knees, Grant, God

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of a Mother. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mother, prayers, my), 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:pg27200:185:106
# text = Then the mother wrung her hands, fell on her knees, and prayed to God, "Grant not my prayers, when they are contrary to Thy will, which at all times must be the best.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	wrung	wring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	prayed	pray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	Grant	grant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	prayers	prayer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	27	mark	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
27	contrary	contrary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	obl	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	Thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
32	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	39	nsubj	_	_
33	at	at	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	35	det	_	_
35	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	obl	_	_
36	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
37	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	cop	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wring** | past | the mother | mother's hands |  |  | then |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Patient |
| 2 | **fall** | past | the mother *not said here* |  |  | mother's knees |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on knee=Location |
| 3 | **pray** | past | the mother *not said here* | Grant  my prayers | God |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | prayers *= prayer* |  |  |  |  | contrary *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | must |  |  |  |  | time | good *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **pray** *in a quote* |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom prayer «act intransitive»: 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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