---
title: I could smell the violets, even while I was placing warm penny piece… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I could smell the violets, even while I was placing warm penny pieces against the frozen panes to make peep-holes, and a pretty view it was on which I peeped. Who acts: I, view, pretty view. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Clerk's Transformation, with it
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/44/40/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Clerk's Transformation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/44/) / 40

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Clerk's Transformation, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I could smell the violets, even while I was placing warm penny pieces against the frozen panes to make peep-holes, and a pretty view it was on which I peeped.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, view, pretty view · **What happens:** smell, place, make, be, peep · **To what, where:** violets, warm penny pieces, frozen panes, peep holes

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Clerk's Transformation. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, view, pretty view), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:44:40
# text = I could smell the violets, even while I was placing warm penny pieces against the frozen panes to make peep-holes, and a pretty view it was on which I peeped.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	smell	smell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	violets	violet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	even	even	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
8	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	placing	place	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
12	warm	warm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	penny	penny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
15	against	against	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	frozen	frozen	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	panes	pane	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
21	peep	peep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	holes	hole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	view	view	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	34	nsubj	_	_
33	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	peeped	peep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **smell** | could | I | the violets |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer violet=Stimulus |
| 2 | **place** | past · progressive | I | warm penny pieces |  | the frozen panes |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent piece=Theme against pane=Destination |
| 3 | **make** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | peep holes |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset hole=Product |
| 4 | **is** | past | view |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **peep** | past | a pretty view |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/44/39/)
- next →: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/44/41/)
- ↑ back to [The Clerk's Transformation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/44/)