---
title: The earth had been kept from falling to pieces by the roots of a wit… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The earth had been kept from falling to pieces by the roots of a withered field-flower, which had been thrown amongst the rubbish. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Angel, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Angel, sentence 16

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The earth had been kept from falling to pieces by the roots of a withered field-flower, which had been thrown amongst the rubbish.

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**What happens:** keep, fall, wither, throw · **To what, where:** earth, withered field flower, rubbish

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Angel. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg27200:4:16
# text = The earth had been kept from falling to pieces by the roots of a withered field-flower, which had been thrown amongst the rubbish.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
15	withered	wither	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	amod	_	_
16	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	flower	flower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	thrown	throw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	conj	_	_
24	amongst	amongst	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	rubbish	rubbish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | past · perfect · passive |  | the earth |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **fall** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | to pieces *result*; by the roots of a withered field flower | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.extent PP.source PP.goal»: agent=Patient to piece=Result by root=Extent |
| 3 | **wither** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **throw** | past · perfect · passive |  | a withered field flower |  | the rubbish |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: subject=Theme amongst rubbish=Destination |

<!-- .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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