---
title: The old Ass of the milk-cart stood at the edge of the field-road, an… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The old Ass of the milk-cart stood at the edge of the field-road, and glanced across at the blooming thistle bush; but his halter was too short, and he could not reach it. Who acts: old Ass, halter, Ass. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Thistle's Experien
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Thistle's Experiences, sentence 40

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The old Ass of the milk-cart stood at the edge of the field-road, and glanced across at the blooming thistle bush; but his halter was too short, and he could not reach it.

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**Who acts:** old Ass, halter, Ass · **What happens:** stand, glance, bloom, be, not reach · **To what, where:** edge, halter

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Thistle's Experiences. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old Ass, halter, Ass), 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:pg27200:189:40
# text = The old Ass of the milk-cart stood at the edge of the field-road, and glanced across at the blooming thistle bush; but his halter was too short, and he could not reach it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	cart	cart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
9	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	glanced	glance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
21	across	across	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	blooming	bloom	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	26	amod	_	_
25	thistle	thistle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	33	punct	_	_
28	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	halter	halter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
32	too	too	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
37	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
38	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	39	advmod	_	_
39	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	parataxis	_	_
40	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | the old Ass of the milk cart |  |  | the edge of the field road |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at edge=Location |
| 2 | **glance** | past | the old Ass of the milk cart *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the blooming thistle bush; across *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at bush=Theme |
| 3 | **bloom** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | Ass's halter |  |  |  |  | short *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **reach** | could | Ass | halter |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent it=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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