---
title: I sat there on the cupboard, and had all the twelve little new-born… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I sat there on the cupboard, and had all the twelve little new-born Will-o'-the-Wisps upon my lap. Who acts: I, twelve. 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, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Moor Woman, sentence 173

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I sat there on the cupboard, and had all the twelve little new-born Will-o'-the-Wisps upon my lap.

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**Who acts:** I, twelve · **What happens:** sit, have, bear · **To what, where:** cupboard, twelve

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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 (I, twelve), 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:pg27200:211:173
# text = I sat there on the cupboard, and had all the twelve little new-born Will-o'-the-Wisps upon my lap.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	cupboard	cupboard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	12	det:predet	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	obj	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
14	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	xcomp	_	_
17	Will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	o	of	ADP	IN	Abbr=Yes	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	Wisps	wisp	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	conj	_	_
25	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	lap	lap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | I |  |  | the cupboard; there |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on cupboard=Location |
| 2 | **have** | past | I *not said here* | all twelve |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent twelve=Patient |
| 3 | **bear** | participle | all twelve *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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