---
title: In a sunny spot stood a pleasant old farm-house close by a deep rive… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: In a sunny spot stood a pleasant old farm-house close by a deep river, and from the house down to the water side grew great burdock leaves, so high, that under the tallest of them a little child could stand upright. Who acts: house, little child. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, sentence 5

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In a sunny spot stood a pleasant old farm-house close by a deep river, and from the house down to the water side grew great burdock leaves, so high, that under the tallest of them a little child could stand upright.

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**Who acts:** house, little child · **What happens:** stand, grow · **To what, where:** pleasant old farm house, sunny spot, great burdock leaves

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (house, little child), 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:pg27200:201:5
# text = In a sunny spot stood a pleasant old farm-house close by a deep river, and from the house down to the water side grew great burdock leaves, so high, that under the tallest of them a little child could stand upright.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	sunny	sunny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	spot	spot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
5	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
7	pleasant	pleasant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
9	farm	farm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
12	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
13	by	by	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
19	from	from	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
22	down	down	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
27	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
28	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
29	burdock	burdock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	so	so	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	33	obl	_	_
36	under	under	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	tallest	tall	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	33	parataxis	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nmod	_	_
41	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
42	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nsubj	_	_
44	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	45	aux	_	_
45	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	acl:relcl	_	_
46	upright	upright	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past |  | a pleasant old farm house |  | a sunny spot |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent house=Theme in spot=Destination |
| 2 | **grow** | past | the house | great burdock leaves |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location leaf=Theme |
| 3 | **stand** | could | a little child |  |  |  |  | upright *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «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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