---
title: There was once a girl who trod on a loaf to avoid soiling her shoes,… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a girl who trod on a loaf to avoid soiling her shoes, and the misfortunes that happened to her in consequence are well known. Who acts: girl, misfortunes. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Girl Who Trod on the Loaf, with its dependency tree 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Girl Who Trod on the Loaf, sentence 1

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There was once a girl who trod on a loaf to avoid soiling her shoes, and the misfortunes that happened to her in consequence are well known.

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**Who acts:** girl, misfortunes · **What happens:** be, tread, avoid, soil, happen, know · **To what, where:** loaf, shoes, girl, consequence, misfortunes

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Girl Who Trod on the Loaf. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girl, misfortunes), 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:pg27200:37:1
# text = There was once a girl who trod on a loaf to avoid soiling her shoes, and the misfortunes that happened to her in consequence are well known.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	trod	tread	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	loaf	loaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	avoid	avoid	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
13	soiling	soil	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	xcomp	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	shoes	shoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	misfortunes	misfortune	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
21	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	consequence	consequence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
26	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
27	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	28	advmod	_	_
28	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a girl |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **tread** | past | a girl |  |  | a loaf |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on loaf=Trajectory |
| 3 | **avoid** | to-infinitive | a girl *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn avoid-52 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **soil** | gerund | a girl *not said here* | girl's shoes |  |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent shoe=Destination |
| 5 | **happen** | past | the misfortunes |  | girl | consequence |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in consequence=Location |
| 6 | **know** | present · passive |  | the misfortunes |  |  |  | well *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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