---
title: Old alder-trees, whose roots were loosened from the banks, clung wit… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Old alder-trees, whose roots were loosened from the banks, clung with their fibres to the bottom of the stream, and the tops of the branches above the water looked like little woody islands. Who acts: tops. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ib and Little Chris
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Ib and Little Christina, sentence 22

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Old alder-trees, whose roots were loosened from the banks, clung with their fibres to the bottom of the stream, and the tops of the branches above the water looked like little woody islands.

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**Who acts:** tops · **What happens:** loosen, cling, look · **To what, where:** Old alder trees, banks

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ib and Little Christina. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tops), 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:pg27200:51:22
# text = Old alder-trees, whose roots were loosened from the banks, clung with their fibres to the bottom of the stream, and the tops of the branches above the water looked like little woody islands.
1	Old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
2	alder	alder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	loosened	loosen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	banks	bank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	clung	cling	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	acl	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	fibres	fibre	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	tops	top	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	_
31	above	above	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
34	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
35	like	like	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
37	woody	woody	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	islands	island	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **loosen** | past · passive |  | Old alder trees and Old alder trees and Old alder trees's roots's roots |  | the banks |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **cling** | participle |  | the banks *not said here* |  |  |  | with trees's fibres; to the bottom of the stream | vn cling-22.5 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme with fibre=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **look** | past | the tops of the branches above the water |  |  |  |  | like little woody islands | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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