---
title: Large speckled spiders, with silver crowns on their heads, were empl… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Large speckled spiders, with silver crowns on their heads, were employed to spin suspension bridges and palaces from one hedge to another, and when the tiny drops fell upon them, they glittered in the moonlight like shining glass. Who acts: tiny drops, drops. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Chris
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1, sentence 77

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Large speckled spiders, with silver crowns on their heads, were employed to spin suspension bridges and palaces from one hedge to another, and when the tiny drops fell upon them, they glittered in the moonlight like shining glass.

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**Who acts:** tiny drops, drops · **What happens:** speckle, employ, spin, fall, glitter, shine · **To what, where:** Large speckled spiders, suspension bridges, one hedge, moonlight, glass

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tiny drops, drops), 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:pg27200:196:77
# text = Large speckled spiders, with silver crowns on their heads, were employed to spin suspension bridges and palaces from one hedge to another, and when the tiny drops fell upon them, they glittered in the moonlight like shining glass.
1	Large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
2	speckled	speckle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	amod	_	_
3	spiders	spider	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	crowns	crown	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	employed	employ	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	spin	spin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	suspension	suspension	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	bridges	bridge	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	palaces	palace	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	conj	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	hedge	hedge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
27	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	31	advmod	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	drops	drop	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nsubj	_	_
31	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
32	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	glittered	glitter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	moonlight	moonlight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
40	like	like	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
41	shining	shine	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	36	advcl	_	_
42	glass	glass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speckle** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **employ** | past · passive |  | Large speckled spiders with silver crowns on spiders's heads |  |  |  |  | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP to be NP»: subject=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **spin** | to-infinitive |  | suspension bridges and palaces |  | one hedge |  | to another | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.agent V NP.theme PP.source PP.trajectory PP.destination»: agent=Agent bridge=Theme from hedge=Source to another=Trajectory |
| 4 | **fall** | past | the tiny drops |  |  |  |  | upon spiders *= spider* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon they=Location |
| 5 | **glitter** | past | drops *= drop* |  |  | the moonlight |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in moonlight=Location |
| 6 | **shine** | gerund | drops *= drop* *not said here* | glass |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent glass=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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