---
title: And Death stretched out his hand towards the delicate little flower;… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: And Death stretched out his hand towards the delicate little flower; but she held her hands tightly round it, and held it fast at same time, with the most anxious care, lest she should touch one of the leaves. Who acts: Death. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen,
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Story of a Mother, sentence 74

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And Death stretched out his hand towards the delicate little flower; but she held her hands tightly round it, and held it fast at same time, with the most anxious care, lest she should touch one of the leaves.

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**Who acts:** Death · **What happens:** stretch out, hold, touch · **To what, where:** hand, hands, one

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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 (Death), 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:pg27200:185:74
# text = And Death stretched out his hand towards the delicate little flower; but she held her hands tightly round it, and held it fast at same time, with the most anxious care, lest she should touch one of the leaves.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Death	Death	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	out	out	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	delicate	delicate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	flower	flower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	tightly	tightly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
19	round	round	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	23	advmod	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
32	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	33	advmod	_	_
33	anxious	anxious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
36	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
37	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
38	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
39	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	parataxis	_	_
40	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	39	obj	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stretch out** | past | Death | flower's hand |  |  |  | towards the delicate little flower | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent hand=Patient towards flower=Recipient |
| 2 | **hold** | past | Death | Death's hands |  |  |  | round hand | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Theme |
| 3 | **hold** | past | Death *not said here* | hand |  |  | time | with the anxious care; fast *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **touch** | should | Death | one of the leaves |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme one=Co-Theme |

<!-- .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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