---
title: And before the tree, whose leaves waved to and fro as if they were s… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: And before the tree, whose leaves waved to and fro as if they were stirred by a tempest, stood a noble, mighty, and grand figure. Who acts: leaves, tempest. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Dryad, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/24/125/)

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Dryad, part 1, sentence 125

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And before the tree, whose leaves waved to and fro as if they were stirred by a tempest, stood a noble, mighty, and grand figure.

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**Who acts:** leaves, tempest · **What happens:** wave, fro, stir, stand · **To what, where:** tree, leaves, noble grand figure

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Dryad, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (leaves, tempest), 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:pg27200:24:125
# text = And before the tree, whose leaves waved to and fro as if they were stirred by a tempest, stood a noble, mighty, and grand figure.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	before	before	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
8	waved	wave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	fro	fro	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	stirred	stir	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	advcl	_	_
17	by	by	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	tempest	tempest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
23	noble	noble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	grand	grand	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	figure	figure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wave** | past | leaves |  |  | the tree |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before tree=Location |
| 2 | **fro** | infinitive | leaves *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **stir** | past · passive | a tempest | leaves *= leaf* |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus subject=Experiencer |
| 4 | **stand** | past | leaves *not said here* | a noble grand figure |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer figure=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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