---
title: They placed themselves by the ear of the sleeper, told him dreadful… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They placed themselves by the ear of the sleeper, told him dreadful dreams and then flew across his lips, and pricked his tongue with their poisoned spears. " Who acts: spears. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Elf of the Rose, with its dependency tree and
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Elf of the Rose, sentence 76

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They placed themselves by the ear of the sleeper, told him dreadful dreams and then flew across his lips, and pricked his tongue with their poisoned spears. "

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**Who acts:** spears · **What happens:** place, tell, fly, prick, poison · **To what, where:** spears, dreadful dreams, spirit, lips, tongue · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (spears), 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:pg27200:30:76
# text = They placed themselves by the ear of the sleeper, told him dreadful dreams and then flew across his lips, and pricked his tongue with their poisoned spears. "
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obj	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	sleeper	sleeper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	_
13	dreadful	dreadful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	dreams	dream	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
17	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
18	across	across	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	lips	lip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	pricked	prick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
28	poisoned	poison	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	amod	_	_
29	spears	spear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **place** | past | spears *= spear* | spears *= spear* |  |  |  | by the ear of the sleeper | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme by ear=Destination |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past |  | dreadful dreams | spirit |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient dream=Topic |
| 3 | **fly** | past |  |  |  | spirit's lips | then |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme across lip=Trajectory |
| 4 | **prick** | past | spears *= spear* *not said here* | spirit's tongue |  |  |  | with spears's poisoned spears | vn poke-19-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent tongue=Patient with spear=Instrument |
| 5 | **poison** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: 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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