--- title: "This needle is quite useless for sewing now," said the fingers; but… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics description: "This needle is quite useless for sewing now," said the fingers; but they still held it fast, and the cook dropped some sealing-wax on the needle, and fastened her handkerchief with it in front. Who acts: needle, fingers, cook. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/21/10/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Darning-needle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/21/) / 10 # Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Darning-needle, sentence 10 "This needle is quite useless for sewing now," said the fingers; but they still held it fast, and the cook dropped some sealing-wax on the needle, and fastened her handkerchief with it in front. **Who acts:** needle, fingers, cook · **What happens:** be, sew, say, hold, drop, fasten · **To what, where:** point, sealing wax, needle, handkerchief, front · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Darning-needle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (needle, fingers, cook), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg27200:21:10 # text = "This needle is quite useless for sewing now," said the fingers; but they still held it fast, and the cook dropped some sealing-wax on the needle, and fastened her handkerchief with it in front. 1 " " PUNCT `` _ 6 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 This this DET DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 3 det _ _ 3 needle needle NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 nsubj _ _ 4 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 cop _ _ 5 quite quite ADV RB _ 6 advmod _ _ 6 useless useless ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 0 root _ _ 7 for for SCONJ IN _ 8 mark _ _ 8 sewing sew VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 6 advcl _ _ 9 now now ADV RB PronType=Dem 8 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 10 , , PUNCT , _ 6 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 11 " " PUNCT '' _ 6 punct _ _ 12 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 conj _ _ 13 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 14 det _ _ 14 fingers finger NOUN NNS Number=Plur 12 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 15 ; ; PUNCT : _ 19 punct _ _ 16 but but CCONJ CC _ 19 cc _ _ 17 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 19 nsubj _ _ 18 still still ADV RB _ 19 advmod _ _ 19 held hold VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 parataxis _ _ 20 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 19 obj _ _ 21 fast fast ADV RB Degree=Pos 19 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 22 , , PUNCT , _ 26 punct _ _ 23 and and CCONJ CC _ 26 cc _ _ 24 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 25 det _ _ 25 cook cook NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 nsubj _ _ 26 dropped drop VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 parataxis _ _ 27 some some DET DT PronType=Ind 30 det _ _ 28 sealing sealing NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 29 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 28 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 30 wax wax NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 obj _ _ 31 on on ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 32 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 needle needle NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 36 punct _ _ 35 and and CCONJ CC _ 36 cc _ _ 36 fastened fasten VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 26 conj _ _ 37 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 38 nmod:poss _ _ 38 handkerchief handkerchief NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 obj _ _ 39 with with ADP IN _ 40 case _ _ 40 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 36 obl _ _ 41 in in ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 42 front front NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 6 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | this needle | | | | | useless *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **sew** *in a quote* | gerund | this needle *not said here* | | | | now | | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient | | 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the fingers | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **hold** | past | fingers *= finger* | point | | | still | fast *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme | | 5 | **drop** | past | the cook | some sealing wax | | the needle | | | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent wax=Theme on needle=Destination | | 6 | **fasten** | past | the cook *not said here* | needle's handkerchief | | front | | with cook | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent handkerchief=Patient with it=Co-Patient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/21/9/) - next →: [sentence 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/21/11/) - ↑ back to [The Darning-needle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/21/)