---
title: A few of the ladies were kneeling in silent prayer before the altars… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: A few of the ladies were kneeling in silent prayer before the altars; others resorted to the confessionals. Who acts: ladies, few. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Dryad, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Dryad, part 2, sentence 126

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A few of the ladies were kneeling in silent prayer before the altars; others resorted to the confessionals.

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**Who acts:** ladies, few · **What happens:** kneel, resort · **To what, where:** silent prayer

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Dryad, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ladies, few), 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:pg27200:25:126
# text = A few of the ladies were kneeling in silent prayer before the altars; others resorted to the confessionals.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	ladies	lady	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	kneeling	kneel	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	prayer	prayer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	before	before	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	altars	altar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
15	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	resorted	resort	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	confessionals	confessional	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kneel** | past · progressive | the ladies |  |  | silent prayer | before the altars |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in prayer=Location |
| 2 | **resort** | past | a few |  |  |  |  | to the confessionals *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to confessional=Result |

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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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