---
title: The servants carried out his orders, but one single gnat had placed… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The servants carried out his orders, but one single gnat had placed itself inside one of the coverings, crept into the prince's ear and stung him. Who acts: servants, prince. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wicked Prince, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wicked Prince, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The servants carried out his orders, but one single gnat had placed itself inside one of the coverings, crept into the prince's ear and stung him.

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**Who acts:** servants, prince · **What happens:** carry out, place, creep, sting, order · **To what, where:** orders, one single gnat, ear, prince

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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 (servants, prince), 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:pg27200:207:31
# text = The servants carried out his orders, but one single gnat had placed itself inside one of the coverings, crept into the prince's ear and stung him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	out	out	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	orders	order	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
10	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	gnat	gnat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	placed	place	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
14	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obj	_	_
15	inside	inside	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	coverings	covering	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
22	into	into	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	's	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	stung	sting	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carry out** | past | the servants | prince's orders |  |  |  |  | vn act-114 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent order=Eventuality |
| 2 | **place** | past · perfect · passive |  | one single gnat |  |  |  | inside one of the coverings | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme itself=Destination |
| 3 | **creep** | past |  |  |  | the prince's ear |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into ear=Destination |
| 4 | **sting** | past |  | prince |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 5 | **order** |  | prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom order «communication 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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