---
title: Look what is sticking to the ugly old fir-tree," said the child, tre… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Look what is sticking to the ugly old fir-tree," said the child, treading on the branches till they crackled under his boots. Who acts: you, children. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Fir Tree, sentence 148

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Look what is sticking to the ugly old fir-tree," said the child, treading on the branches till they crackled under his boots.

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**Who acts:** you, children · **What happens:** look, stick, say, tread, crackle · **To what, where:** child, branches, boots · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, 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:pg27200:33:148
# text = Look what is sticking to the ugly old fir-tree," said the child, treading on the branches till they crackled under his boots.
1	Look	look	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	sticking	stick	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	1	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
7	ugly	ugly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
9	fir	fir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	treading	tread	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
22	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	crackled	crackle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
25	under	under	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	boots	boot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **stick** | present · progressive |  |  |  |  |  | to the ugly old fir tree | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past |  | the child |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent child=Topic |
| 4 | **tread** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  | the branches |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on branch=Trajectory |
| 5 | **crackle** *in a quote* | past | children *= child* |  |  | youngest's boots |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme under boot=Location |

<!-- .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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