---
title: Then he took it into his head to measure how many steps he would hav… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he took it into his head to measure how many steps he would have to go through the roads and cross-roads that are on the leaf of a linden-tree. Who acts: prettiest, many steps, that. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Elf of the Rose, with its dependen
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Elf of the Rose, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then he took it into his head to measure how many steps he would have to go through the roads and cross-roads that are on the leaf of a linden-tree.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prettiest, many steps, that · **What happens:** take, measure, have, go, be · **To what, where:** flower, head, many steps, roads, leaf

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Elf of the Rose. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prettiest, many steps, that), 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:pg27200:30:7
# text = Then he took it into his head to measure how many steps he would have to go through the roads and cross-roads that are on the leaf of a linden-tree.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	into	into	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	measure	measure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
10	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
11	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	through	through	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	roads	road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	cross-roads	cross-road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	conj	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
24	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
30	linden	linden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | prettiest *= pretty* | flower |  | prettiest's head | then |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme into head=Destination |
| 2 | **measure** | to-infinitive | prettiest *= pretty* *not said here* | many steps |  |  |  |  | vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme step=Value |
| 3 | **have** | would | prettiest *= pretty* | many steps *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** | to-infinitive | many steps *not said here* |  |  | the roads and cross-roads and the leaf |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme through road=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **is** | present | that |  |  | the leaf |  | of a linden tree | tree rules |

<!-- .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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