---
title: Sometimes it had come to him in the guise of a peddler, and had open… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Sometimes it had come to him in the guise of a peddler, and had opened its box and let silver ribbon come fluttering out, with verses and inscriptions of old remembrances. Who acts: door, silver. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/211/13/)

<!-- 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 Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Sa…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/211/) / 13

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Moor Woman, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Sometimes it had come to him in the guise of a peddler, and had opened its box and let silver ribbon come fluttering out, with verses and inscriptions of old remembrances.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** door, silver · **What happens:** come, open, let, ribbon, flutter out, verse · **To what, where:** man, guise, box, silver, old remembrances

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Moor Woman. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (door, silver), 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:pg27200:211:13
# text = Sometimes it had come to him in the guise of a peddler, and had opened its box and let silver ribbon come fluttering out, with verses and inscriptions of old remembrances.
1	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	4	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	guise	guise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	peddler	peddler	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	opened	open	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
17	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
21	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
22	ribbon	ribbon	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	come	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	fluttering	flutter	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
25	out	out	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	verses	verse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	inscriptions	inscription	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	conj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	remembrances	remembrance	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past · perfect | door |  | man | the guise of a peddler |  | sometimes *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to he=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **open** | past · perfect | door *not said here* | door's box |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location box=Theme |
| 3 | **let** | infinitive | door *not said here* | silver |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **ribbon** | infinitive | silver *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with verses of old remembrances and inscriptions | tree rules |
| 5 | **flutter out** | present | silver *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **verse** |  |  | old remembrances |  |  |  |  | nom verse «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/211/12/)
- next →: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/211/14/)
- ↑ back to [The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Moor Woman](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/211/)