---
title: Many a poor mother fled, her naked baby in her arms, behind the stil… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Many a poor mother fled, her naked baby in her arms, behind the still smoking walls of her cottage; but also there the soldiers followed her, and when they found her, she served as new nourishment to their diabolical enjoyments; demons could not possibly have done worse things than these soldiers! W
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wicked Prince, sentence 2

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Many a poor mother fled, her naked baby in her arms, behind the still smoking walls of her cottage; but also there the soldiers followed her, and when they found her, she served as new nourishment to their diabolical enjoyments; demons could not possibly have done worse things than these soldiers!

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**Who acts:** Many, soldiers, mother, demons · **What happens:** flee, follow, find, serve, not do, enjoy · **To what, where:** mother, worse things

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wicked Prince. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Many, soldiers, mother, demons), 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:pg27200:207:2
# text = Many a poor mother fled, her naked baby in her arms, behind the still smoking walls of her cottage; but also there the soldiers followed her, and when they found her, she served as new nourishment to their diabolical enjoyments; demons could not possibly have done worse things than these soldiers!
1	Many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	nsubj	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	naked	naked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	still	still	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	smoking	smoking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	cottage	cottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	also	also	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
28	followed	follow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
29	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
32	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
33	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	advcl	_	_
35	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
37	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	served	serve	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
39	as	as	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	nourishment	nourishment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
42	to	to	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
43	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	45	nmod:poss	_	_
44	diabolical	diabolical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	enjoyments	enjoyment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	52	punct	_	_
47	demons	demon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	52	nsubj	_	_
48	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	52	aux	_	_
49	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	52	advmod	_	_
50	possibly	possibly	ADV	RB	_	52	advmod	_	_
51	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	52	aux	_	_
52	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
53	worse	bad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	54	amod	_	_
54	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	52	obj	_	_
55	than	than	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
56	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	57	det	_	_
57	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	54	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	52	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **flee** | past | Many |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **follow** | past | the soldiers | mother |  | there |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 3 | **find** | past | soldiers *= soldier* | mother |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Topic |
| 4 | **serve** | past | mother |  |  |  |  | as new nourishment; to soldiers's diabolical enjoyments | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent as nourishment=Attribute |
| 5 | **not** **do** | could · perfect | demons | worse things |  |  |  | than this soldiers; possibly *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality |
| 6 | **enjoy** |  | soldiers *= soldier* |  |  |  |  |  | nom enjoyment «feeling transitive»: poss=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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