---
title: The others were either blind, or had withered legs, which obliged th… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The others were either blind, or had withered legs, which obliged them to creep about on their hands and knees, or they had shrivelled arms and hands without fingers. Who acts: others, withered legs, legs. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Best Thing the G
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Best Thing the Goloshes Did, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The others were either blind, or had withered legs, which obliged them to creep about on their hands and knees, or they had shrivelled arms and hands without fingers.

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**Who acts:** others, withered legs, legs · **What happens:** be, wither, oblige, creep, shrivell · **To what, where:** others, hands, arms

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Best Thing the Goloshes Did. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (others, withered legs, legs), 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:pg27200:45:36
# text = The others were either blind, or had withered legs, which obliged them to creep about on their hands and knees, or they had shrivelled arms and hands without fingers.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	either	either	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc:preconj	_	_
5	blind	blind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	withered	wither	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	amod	_	_
10	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	creep	creep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
17	about	about	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	shrivelled	shrivell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
28	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	conj	_	_
31	without	without	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the others |  |  |  |  | blind *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **wither** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **oblige** | past | withered legs | others *= other* |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Patient clause=Result |
| 4 | **creep** | to-infinitive | withered legs *not said here* |  |  | others's hands and knees |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on hand=Trajectory |
| 5 | **shrivell** | past · perfect | legs *= leg* | arms and hands |  |  |  | without fingers | 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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