---
title: She looked at the empty nests; in one of them grew a long-stalked co… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: She looked at the empty nests; in one of them grew a long-stalked corn flower, in another the yellow mustard seed, as if the nest had been placed there only for its comfort and protection, and the sparrows were flying round them all. Who acts: queen, one, sparrows, nest. A sentence of «Fairy Tales o
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Story of the Year, sentence 124

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She looked at the empty nests; in one of them grew a long-stalked corn flower, in another the yellow mustard seed, as if the nest had been placed there only for its comfort and protection, and the sparrows were flying round them all.

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**Who acts:** queen, one, sparrows, nest · **What happens:** look, grow, stalk, place, fly, comfort · **To what, where:** stalked corn flower, nest

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of the Year. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (queen, one, sparrows, nest), 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:pg27200:214:124
# text = She looked at the empty nests; in one of them grew a long-stalked corn flower, in another the yellow mustard seed, as if the nest had been placed there only for its comfort and protection, and the sparrows were flying round them all.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	nests	nest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nsubj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	_
12	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
14	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	stalked	stalk	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	amod	_	_
17	corn	corn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	flower	flower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
21	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
24	mustard	mustard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	seed	seed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
27	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
28	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	placed	place	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	conj	_	_
34	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	33	advmod	_	_
35	only	only	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
36	for	for	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	comfort	comfort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
40	protection	protection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	nsubj	_	_
45	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
46	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
47	round	round	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	obl	_	_
49	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	48	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | queen |  |  |  |  | at the empty nests | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at nest=Theme |
| 2 | **grow** | past | one of mists | a stalked corn flower |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location flower=Theme |
| 3 | **stalk** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn stalk-35.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **place** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect · passive |  | the nest |  | there |  | for nest's comfort and protection | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **fly** | past · progressive | the sparrows |  |  |  |  | round mists *= mist* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme round they=Trajectory |
| 6 | **comfort** |  | nest |  |  |  |  |  | nom comfort «state transitive»: poss=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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