---
title: He stood before the mayor in his poor but clean and well-mended clot… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He stood before the mayor in his poor but clean and well-mended clothes, with heavy wooden shoes on his feet, looking as humble as if it had been the king himself. Who acts: boy, peak. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, She Was Good For Nothing, with its depend
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, She Was Good For Nothing, sentence 8

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He stood before the mayor in his poor but clean and well-mended clothes, with heavy wooden shoes on his feet, looking as humble as if it had been the king himself.

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**Who acts:** boy, peak · **What happens:** stand, mend, look, be · **To what, where:** poor mended clothes

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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 (boy, peak), 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:pg27200:46:8
# text = He stood before the mayor in his poor but clean and well-mended clothes, with heavy wooden shoes on his feet, looking as humble as if it had been the king himself.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	before	before	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	mayor	mayor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
8	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	clean	clean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	mended	mend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	amod	_	_
15	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	wooden	wooden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	shoes	shoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
26	as	as	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	humble	humble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	_
28	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	34	case	_	_
29	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	28	fixed	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
31	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
32	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	34	cop	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
35	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | boy |  |  | boy's poor mended clothes and heavy wooden shoes on boy's feet | before the mayor |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before mayor=Location |
| 2 | **mend** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | well *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **look** | gerund | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | humble *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is** | past · perfect | peak |  |  |  |  | as the king; boy *nmod* | 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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