---
title: All the flowers were supported by human bones instead of sticks, and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: All the flowers were supported by human bones instead of sticks, and human skulls in the flower-pots grinned horribly. Who acts: human bones, human skulls. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 2, sentence 62

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All the flowers were supported by human bones instead of sticks, and human skulls in the flower-pots grinned horribly.

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**Who acts:** human bones, human skulls · **What happens:** support, grin · **To what, where:** flowers

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (human bones, human skulls), 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:pg27200:197:62
# text = All the flowers were supported by human bones instead of sticks, and human skulls in the flower-pots grinned horribly.
1	All	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	3	det:predet	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	supported	support	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl:agent	_	_
9	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	11	case	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	fixed	_	_
11	sticks	stick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
14	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	skulls	skull	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	flower	flower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	pots	pot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
21	grinned	grin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
22	horribly	horribly	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **support** | past · passive | human bones | all flowers |  |  |  | instead sticks | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer subject=Stimulus |
| 2 | **grin** | past | human skulls in the flower pots |  |  |  |  | horribly *property* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=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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