--- title: She had been sitting in her arm-chair, telling us a long, beautiful… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics description: She had been sitting in her arm-chair, telling us a long, beautiful tale; and when it was finished, she said she was tired, and leaned her head back to sleep awhile. Who acts: GRANDMOTHER. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, She Was Good For Nothing, with its de --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/46/181/) [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/) / [She Was Good For Nothing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/46/) / 181 # Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, She Was Good For Nothing, sentence 181 She had been sitting in her arm-chair, telling us a long, beautiful tale; and when it was finished, she said she was tired, and leaned her head back to sleep awhile. **Who acts:** GRANDMOTHER · **What happens:** sit, tell, finish, say, be, learn back · **To what, where:** arm chair, long beautiful tale, us, tale, head · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, She Was Good For Nothing. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (GRANDMOTHER), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg27200:46:181 # text = She had been sitting in her arm-chair, telling us a long, beautiful tale; and when it was finished, she said she was tired, and leaned her head back to sleep awhile. 1 She she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 nsubj _ _ 2 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 aux _ _ 3 been be AUX VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 4 aux _ _ 4 sitting sit VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 0 root _ _ 5 in in ADP IN _ 9 case _ _ 6 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 9 nmod:poss _ _ 7 arm arm NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 8 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 7 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 9 chair chair NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 10 , , PUNCT , _ 11 punct _ _ 11 telling tell VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 4 conj _ _ 12 us we PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 11 iobj _ _ 13 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 17 det _ _ 14 long long ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 17 amod _ SpaceAfter=No 15 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 16 beautiful beautiful ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 17 amod _ _ 17 tale tale NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 18 ; ; PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 19 and and CCONJ CC _ 23 cc _ _ 20 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 23 advmod _ _ 21 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 23 nsubj:pass _ _ 22 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 23 aux:pass _ _ 23 finished finish VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 4 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 24 , , PUNCT , _ 26 punct _ _ 25 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 26 nsubj _ _ 26 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 23 parataxis _ _ 27 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 29 nsubj _ _ 28 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 29 cop _ _ 29 tired tired ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 26 ccomp _ SpaceAfter=No 30 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 31 and and CCONJ CC _ 32 cc _ _ 32 leaned learn VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 26 conj _ _ 33 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 34 nmod:poss _ _ 34 head head NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 obj _ _ 35 back back ADV RB _ 32 advmod _ _ 36 to to PART TO _ 37 mark _ _ 37 sleep sleep VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 32 advcl _ _ 38 awhile awhile ADV RB _ 37 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 39 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **sit** | past · perfect · progressive | GRANDMOTHER | | | GRANDMOTHER's arm chair | | | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in chair=Location | | 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | GRANDMOTHER *not said here* | a long beautiful tale | us | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent we=Recipient tale=Topic | | 3 | **finish** | past · passive | | tale | | | | | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality | | 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | GRANDMOTHER | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **is** | past | GRANDMOTHER | | | | | tired *property* | tree rules | | 6 | **learn back** | past | GRANDMOTHER *not said here* | GRANDMOTHER's head | | | | | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Topic | | 7 | **sleep** | to-infinitive | GRANDMOTHER *not said here* | | | | | awhile *property* | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 180](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/46/180/) - next →: [sentence 182](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/46/182/) - ↑ back to [She Was Good For Nothing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/46/)