---
title: The old willow-tree in the garden was much handsomer, and therefore… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The old willow-tree in the garden was much handsomer, and therefore the children were very fond of sitting under it. Who acts: old willow tree, children. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Under the Willow-tree, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/202/16/)

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Under the Willow-tree, part 1, sentence 16

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The old willow-tree in the garden was much handsomer, and therefore the children were very fond of sitting under it.

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**Who acts:** old willow tree, children · **What happens:** be, sit · **To what, where:** tree

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Under the Willow-tree, 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 (old willow tree, children), 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:pg27200:202:16
# text = The old willow-tree in the garden was much handsomer, and therefore the children were very fond of sitting under it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
3	willow	willow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	much	much	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	handsomer	handsome	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
14	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	very	very	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	_
20	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	advcl	_	_
22	under	under	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the old willow tree in the garden |  |  |  |  | handsome *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the children |  |  |  |  | fond, therefore *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **sit** | gerund | the children *not said here* |  |  | tree |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent under it=Location |

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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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