---
title: Then the little elves crept into the flower-buds, and the wind seize… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the little elves crept into the flower-buds, and the wind seized the bridges and palaces, and fluttered them in the air like cobwebs. Who acts: little elves, wind. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1, with its dependency tre
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1, sentence 79

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then the little elves crept into the flower-buds, and the wind seized the bridges and palaces, and fluttered them in the air like cobwebs.

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**Who acts:** little elves, wind · **What happens:** creep, seize, flutter · **To what, where:** flower buds, bridges

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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 (little elves, wind), 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:pg27200:196:79
# text = Then the little elves crept into the flower-buds, and the wind seized the bridges and palaces, and fluttered them in the air like cobwebs.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	elves	elf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	into	into	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	flower	flower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	buds	bud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
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	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	fluttered	flutter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
27	like	like	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	cobwebs	cobweb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **creep** | past | the little elves |  |  | the flower buds | then |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into bud=Destination |
| 2 | **seize** | past | the wind | the bridges and palaces |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bridge=Theme |
| 3 | **flutter** | past | the little elves *not said here* | bridges *= bridge* |  |  |  | in the air like cobwebs | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Patient in air=Topic |

<!-- .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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