---
title: It could be opened either at the front or at the back, and at every… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It could be opened either at the front or at the back, and at every side and corner--a perfect work of art, and yet only an old alder stump in appearance. Who acts: art. 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,
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Moor Woman, sentence 144

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It could be opened either at the front or at the back, and at every side and corner--a perfect work of art, and yet only an old alder stump in appearance.

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**Who acts:** art · **What happens:** open, work · **To what, where:** cupboard, front

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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 (art), 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:pg27200:211:144
# text = It could be opened either at the front or at the back, and at every side and corner--a perfect work of art, and yet only an old alder stump in appearance.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	opened	open	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	either	either	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc:preconj	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	det	_	_
17	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	perfect	perfect	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	parataxis	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	art	art	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
28	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
29	only	only	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
30	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
31	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
32	alder	alder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	stump	stump	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	appearance	appearance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | could · passive |  | cupboard |  | the front or the back |  | at every side and corner; a old alder stump in appearance *obl* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: subject=Theme at front=Location |
| 2 | **work** |  | art |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: of=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.

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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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