---
title: It spoke of the glory of its birth; it told of the strength of the s… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It spoke of the glory of its birth; it told of the strength of the sunlight, which had caused its delicate leaves to expand, and given to it such sweet perfume. Who acts: bench, strength, delicate leaves, birth. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Clerk's Tr
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Clerk's Transformation, sentence 64

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It spoke of the glory of its birth; it told of the strength of the sunlight, which had caused its delicate leaves to expand, and given to it such sweet perfume.

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**Who acts:** bench, strength, delicate leaves, birth · **What happens:** speak, tell, cause, expand, give, glory · **To what, where:** delicate leaves, such sweet perfume, bench · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (bench, strength, delicate leaves, birth), 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:pg27200:44:64
# text = It spoke of the glory of its birth; it told of the strength of the sunlight, which had caused its delicate leaves to expand, and given to it such sweet perfume.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	glory	glory	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	caused	cause	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	acl:relcl	_	_
22	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	delicate	delicate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	expand	expand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	_
32	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
33	sweet	sweet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	perfume	perfume	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | bench |  |  |  |  | of the glory of bench's birth | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | bench |  |  |  |  | of the strength of the sunlight | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **cause** | past · perfect | the strength of the sunlight | bench's delicate leaves |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **expand** | to-infinitive | bench's delicate leaves *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **give** | participle | bench *not said here* | such sweet perfume | bench |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent perfume=Theme to it=Recipient |
| 6 | **glory** |  | bench's birth |  |  |  |  |  | nom glory «state intransitive»: of=agent |

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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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