---
title: She plucks the withered leaf from the balsam, and looks at the grass… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: She plucks the withered leaf from the balsam, and looks at the grass-covered rampart, on which many children are playing. Who acts: maid, many children. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, By the Almshouse Window, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, By the Almshouse Window, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She plucks the withered leaf from the balsam, and looks at the grass-covered rampart, on which many children are playing.

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**Who acts:** maid, many children · **What happens:** pluck, wither, look, cover, play · **To what, where:** withered leaf, balsam

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, By the Almshouse Window. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (maid, many children), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:3:5
# text = She plucks the withered leaf from the balsam, and looks at the grass-covered rampart, on which many children are playing.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	plucks	pluck	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	withered	wither	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	amod	_	_
5	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	from	from	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	balsam	balsam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	looks	look	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
14	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	amod	_	_
17	rampart	rampart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	obl	_	_
21	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
23	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pluck** | present | maid | the withered leaf |  | the balsam |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent leaf=Theme from balsam=Source |
| 2 | **wither** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **look** | present |  |  |  |  |  | at the covered rampart | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at rampart=Theme |
| 4 | **cover** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **play** | present · progressive | many children |  |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=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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