---
title: For years it had stood there, in the protection of a mighty oak tree… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: For years it had stood there, in the protection of a mighty oak tree, under which the old venerable clergyman had often sat, with children listening to his stories. Who acts: children. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Dryad, part 1, with its dependency tr
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Dryad, part 1, sentence 16

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For years it had stood there, in the protection of a mighty oak tree, under which the old venerable clergyman had often sat, with children listening to his stories.

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**Who acts:** children · **What happens:** stand, sit, listen, protect · **To what, where:** tree, protection, old venerable clergyman, mighty oak tree

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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 (children), 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:pg27200:24:16
# text = For years it had stood there, in the protection of a mighty oak tree, under which the old venerable clergyman had often sat, with children listening to his stories.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	stood	stand	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	protection	protection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
17	under	under	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	obl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	venerable	venerable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	clergyman	clergyman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	often	often	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	sat	sit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
29	listening	listen	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	28	acl	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past · perfect · passive |  | tree |  | the protection of a mighty oak tree; there | year |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in protection=Destination |
| 2 | **sit** | past · perfect · passive |  | the old venerable clergyman |  |  |  | with children; often *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: subject=Theme under which=Location |
| 3 | **listen** | gerund | children *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to Paris's stories | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to story=Theme |
| 4 | **protect** |  |  | a mighty oak tree |  |  |  |  | nom protection «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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