---
title: A bird that felt timid and shy to all things around it, that seemed… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: A bird that felt timid and shy to all things around it, that seemed to shrink with shame from meeting any living creature, and hurriedly sought to conceal itself in a dark corner of an old ruined wall; there it sat cowering and unable to utter a sound, for it was voiceless. Who acts: bird. A sentenc
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Girl Who Trod on the Loaf, sentence 81

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A bird that felt timid and shy to all things around it, that seemed to shrink with shame from meeting any living creature, and hurriedly sought to conceal itself in a dark corner of an old ruined wall; there it sat cowering and unable to utter a sound, for it was voiceless.

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**Who acts:** bird · **What happens:** feel, seem, shrink, meet, seek, conceal · **To what, where:** living creature, bird, dark corner, sound

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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 (bird), 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:pg27200:37:81
# text = A bird that felt timid and shy to all things around it, that seemed to shrink with shame from meeting any living creature, and hurriedly sought to conceal itself in a dark corner of an old ruined wall; there it sat cowering and unable to utter a sound, for it was voiceless.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
3	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	4	nsubj	_	_
4	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
5	timid	timid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	shy	shy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
10	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
11	around	around	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	nsubj	_	_
15	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	shrink	shrink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	shame	shame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
20	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	meeting	meet	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
22	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	det	_	_
23	living	living	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	hurriedly	hurriedly	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	conceal	conceal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	30	obj	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
37	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
38	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
39	ruined	ruin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	40	amod	_	_
40	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
42	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	44	expl	_	_
43	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	nsubj	_	_
44	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
45	cowering	cower	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	44	advcl	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
47	unable	unable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	conj	_	_
48	to	to	PART	TO	_	49	mark	_	_
49	utter	utter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	47	xcomp	_	_
50	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
51	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	56	punct	_	_
53	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	56	mark	_	_
54	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	56	nsubj	_	_
55	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	56	cop	_	_
56	voiceless	voiceless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feel** | past | a bird |  |  |  |  | timid *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **seem** | past | a bird |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **shrink** | to-infinitive | a bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with shame | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with shame=Instrument |
| 4 | **meet** | gerund | a bird *not said here* | any living creature |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent creature=Co-Agent |
| 5 | **seek** | past | a bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hurriedly *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **conceal** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | a bird *not said here* | bird |  | a dark corner of a old ruined wall |  |  | vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent itself=Patient in corner=Location |
| 7 | **ruin** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **sit** | past | bird |  |  | there |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **cower** | gerund | bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn body\_internal\_states-40.6 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 10 | **utter** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | bird *not said here* | a sound |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent sound=Topic |
| 11 | **is** | past | bird |  |  |  |  | voiceless *property* | 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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