---
title: Instead of the velvet and silk dresses, they gave her the coats of m… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Instead of the velvet and silk dresses, they gave her the coats of mail which she had woven to cover her, and the bundle of nettles for a pillow; but nothing they could give her would have pleased her more. Who acts: dresses, nothing. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. A
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/210/12/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 Wild Swans, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/210/) / 12

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 3, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Instead of the velvet and silk dresses, they gave her the coats of mail which she had woven to cover her, and the bundle of nettles for a pillow; but nothing they could give her would have pleased her more.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dresses, nothing · **What happens:** give, weave, cover, have · **To what, where:** bundle, Eliza

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dresses, nothing), 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:pg27200:210:12
# text = Instead of the velvet and silk dresses, they gave her the coats of mail which she had woven to cover her, and the bundle of nettles for a pillow; but nothing they could give her would have pleased her more.
1	Instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	4	case	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	velvet	velvet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	dresses	dress	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	iobj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	coats	coat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	mail	mail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	woven	weave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	ccomp	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	cover	cover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
22	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	bundle	bundle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	nettles	nettle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	_
29	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	pillow	pillow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	40	punct	_	_
33	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
34	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	40	nsubj	_	_
35	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
36	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	acl:relcl	_	_
38	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	iobj	_	_
39	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
40	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
41	pleased	pleased	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	xcomp	_	_
42	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	41	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | dresses *= dress* | the bundle of nettles for a pillow | Eliza |  |  | instead the velvet and silk dresses | tree rules |
| 2 | **weave** | past · perfect · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Product |
| 3 | **cover** | to-infinitive |  |  | Eliza |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme she=Destination |
| 4 | **give** | could | dresses *= dress* |  | Eliza |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 5 | **have** | would | nothing |  |  |  |  | pleased *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/210/11/)
- next →: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/210/13/)
- ↑ back to [The Wild Swans, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/210/)