---
title: In the middle of the room sat the old woman who had the management o… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: In the middle of the room sat the old woman who had the management of the whole, and who knew accurately about every egg that was laid, and about every chicken that could creep out of an egg. Who acts: old woman, chicken. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, 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 52

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In the middle of the room sat the old woman who had the management of the whole, and who knew accurately about every egg that was laid, and about every chicken that could creep out of an egg.

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**Who acts:** old woman, chicken · **What happens:** sit, have, know, lay, creep out · **To what, where:** old woman, middle, management, egg

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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 (old woman, chicken), 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:pg27200:211:52
# text = In the middle of the room sat the old woman who had the management of the whole, and who knew accurately about every egg that was laid, and about every chicken that could creep out of an egg.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	management	management	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
21	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
22	accurately	accurately	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
23	about	about	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	25	det	_	_
25	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
26	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	about	about	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
32	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	33	det	_	_
33	chicken	chicken	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
34	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	36	nsubj	_	_
35	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	creep	creep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	acl:relcl	_	_
37	out	out	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past |  | the old woman |  | the middle of the room |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent woman=Theme in middle=Location |
| 2 | **have** | past | the old woman | the management of the whole |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent management=Patient |
| 3 | **know** | past |  | every egg |  |  |  | accurately *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **lay** | past · passive |  | every egg |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Result |
| 5 | **creep out** | could | every chicken | a egg |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location egg=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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