---
title: And when the old woman sat at the cottage door on Sunday, and read h… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: And when the old woman sat at the cottage door on Sunday, and read her hymn-book, the wind would flutter the leaves, and say to the book, "Who can be more pious than you?" and then the hymn-book would answer "Eliza." Who acts: old woman, wind, hymn book. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 1, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And when the old woman sat at the cottage door on Sunday, and read her hymn-book, the wind would flutter the leaves, and say to the book, "Who can be more pious than you?" and then the hymn-book would answer "Eliza."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old woman, wind, hymn book · **What happens:** sit, read, flutter, say, be, answer · **To what, where:** cottage door, hymn book, leaves, book, Eliza · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, 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 woman, wind, hymn book), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:208:19
# text = And when the old woman sat at the cottage door on Sunday, and read her hymn-book, the wind would flutter the leaves, and say to the book, "Who can be more pious than you?" and then the hymn-book would answer "Eliza."
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	cottage	cottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Sunday	Sunday	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
17	hymn	hymn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	flutter	flutter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
34	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	39	nsubj	_	_
36	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
37	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	cop	_	_
38	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	39	advmod	_	_
39	pious	pious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	parataxis	_	_
40	than	than	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	39	punct	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
45	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	51	advmod	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
47	hymn	hymn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	47	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	nsubj	_	_
50	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	51	aux	_	_
51	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	conj	_	_
52	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	53	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	Eliza	Eliza	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	51	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | the old woman |  |  | the cottage door | sunday |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at door=Location |
| 2 | **read** | infinitive | the old woman *not said here* | woman's hymn book |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent book=Topic |
| 3 | **flutter** | would | the wind | the leaves |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location leaf=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: ask* | infinitive | the old woman *not said here* |  | the book |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to book=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | can |  |  |  |  |  | than the book *= book*; pious *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **answer** *speech: assert* | would | the hymn book |  | Eliza |  | then |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent eliza=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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