---
title: Their shapes were too graceful, their complexions too delicate, and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Their shapes were too graceful, their complexions too delicate, and the cut of their dresses much too elegant. Who acts: shapes, cut. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Beginning, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Beginning, sentence 9

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Their shapes were too graceful, their complexions too delicate, and the cut of their dresses much too elegant.

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**Who acts:** shapes, cut · **What happens:** be

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Beginning. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shapes, cut), 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:pg27200:40:9
# text = Their shapes were too graceful, their complexions too delicate, and the cut of their dresses much too elegant.
1	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	shapes	shape	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	too	too	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	graceful	graceful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	complexions	complexion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
9	too	too	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	delicate	delicate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	cut	cut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	dresses	dress	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	_
18	much	much	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
19	too	too	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	elegant	elegant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | maidens's shapes |  |  |  |  | maidens's complexions *obl*; graceful *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | the cut of maidens's dresses |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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