---
title: The little mice ran about the floor, they dragged the nettles to her… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The little mice ran about the floor, they dragged the nettles to her feet, to help as well as they could; and the thrush sat outside the grating of the window, and sang to her the whole night long, as sweetly as possible, to keep up her spirits. Who acts: little mice, mice, thrush. A sentence of «Fa
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 3, sentence 19

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The little mice ran about the floor, they dragged the nettles to her feet, to help as well as they could; and the thrush sat outside the grating of the window, and sang to her the whole night long, as sweetly as possible, to keep up her spirits.

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**Who acts:** little mice, mice, thrush · **What happens:** run, drag, help, sit, sing, keep up · **To what, where:** nettles, feet, grating, Eliza, spirits

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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 (little mice, mice, thrush), 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:pg27200:210:19
# text = The little mice ran about the floor, they dragged the nettles to her feet, to help as well as they could; and the thrush sat outside the grating of the window, and sang to her the whole night long, as sweetly as possible, to keep up her spirits.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	about	about	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	dragged	drag	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	nettles	nettle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
19	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADV	18	advmod	_	_
20	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	19	fixed	_	_
21	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	thrush	thrush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
29	outside	outside	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	grating	grating	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
38	to	to	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obl	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl:unmarked	_	_
43	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
45	as	as	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
46	sweetly	sweetly	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
47	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	48	mark	_	_
48	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
50	to	to	PART	TO	_	51	mark	_	_
51	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	conj	_	_
52	up	up	ADP	RP	_	51	compound:prt	_	_
53	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	54	nmod:poss	_	_
54	spirits	spirit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	51	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **run** | past | the little mice |  |  |  |  | about the floor | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about floor=Trajectory |
| 2 | **drag** | past | mice *= mouse* | the nettles |  | Eliza's feet |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent nettle=Theme to foot=Destination |
| 3 | **help** | to-infinitive | mice *= mouse* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **sit** | past | the thrush |  |  | the grating of the window |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent outside grating=Location |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | the little mice *not said here* |  | Eliza |  | night | long, sweetly *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to she=Recipient |
| 6 | **keep up** | to-infinitive | the little mice *not said here* | Eliza's spirits |  |  |  |  | vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent spirit=Theme |

<!-- .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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