---
title: She knew so well how to tell about the oldest times, long before the… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: She knew so well how to tell about the oldest times, long before the princesses spun with the golden spindles, and the dragons lay outside the castles, guarding them. Who acts: charming, dragons. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Moor Woman, sentence 15

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She knew so well how to tell about the oldest times, long before the princesses spun with the golden spindles, and the dragons lay outside the castles, guarding them.

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**Who acts:** charming, dragons · **What happens:** know, tell, spin, lay, guard · **To what, where:** princesses, castles, dragons · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (charming, dragons), 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:pg27200:211:15
# text = She knew so well how to tell about the oldest times, long before the princesses spun with the golden spindles, and the dragons lay outside the castles, guarding them.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	_
5	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
8	about	about	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	oldest	old	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	11	amod	_	_
11	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
14	before	before	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	princesses	princess	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
17	spun	spin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	spindles	spindle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	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	dragons	dragon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
26	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
27	outside	outside	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	castles	castle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
31	guarding	guard	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
32	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | charming |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  | time | long *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **spin** | participle |  | the princesses *not said here* |  |  |  | with the golden spindles | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **lay** | present | the dragons |  |  | the castles |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent outside castle=Destination |
| 5 | **guard** | gerund | the dragons *not said here* | dragons *= dragon* |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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