---
title: But in front of the tan-yard, close to the entrance, stood a little… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But in front of the tan-yard, close to the entrance, stood a little girl clothed in rags, very pretty to look at, with curly hair, and eyes so blue and clear that it was a pleasure to look into them. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Great Grief, with its de
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Great Grief, sentence 25

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But in front of the tan-yard, close to the entrance, stood a little girl clothed in rags, very pretty to look at, with curly hair, and eyes so blue and clear that it was a pleasure to look into them.

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**What happens:** stand, clothe, look, be · **To what, where:** little girl, front, pleasure

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Great Grief. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg27200:47:25
# text = But in front of the tan-yard, close to the entrance, stood a little girl clothed in rags, very pretty to look at, with curly hair, and eyes so blue and clear that it was a pleasure to look into them.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	tan	tan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	yard	yard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	entrance	entrance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
15	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	clothed	clothe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	rags	rag	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	very	very	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	pretty	pretty	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	curly	curly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
34	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nsubj	_	_
35	so	so	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	parataxis	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
38	clear	clear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	conj	_	_
39	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	43	mark	_	_
40	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	expl	_	_
41	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	cop	_	_
42	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	conj	_	_
44	to	to	PART	TO	_	45	mark	_	_
45	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	43	acl	_	_
46	into	into	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past |  | a little girl |  | front of the tan yard |  | pretty *property* | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent girl=Theme in front=Destination |
| 2 | **clothe** | participle |  | a little girl *not said here* |  |  |  | in rags | vn dress-41.1.1-1-2 «Passive»: agent=Pivot in rag=Theme |
| 3 | **look** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | at curly hair | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at hair=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | past |  | a pleasure |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **look** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | into eyes *= eye* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent into they=Theme |

<!-- .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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