---
title: Little Ib, a boy of seven years old and the only child, would sit by… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Little Ib, a boy of seven years old and the only child, would sit by, watching the workmen, or cutting a stick, and sometimes his finger instead of the stick. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ib and Little Christina, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Ib and Little Christina, sentence 8

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Little Ib, a boy of seven years old and the only child, would sit by, watching the workmen, or cutting a stick, and sometimes his finger instead of the stick.

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**What happens:** sit by, watch, cut · **To what, where:** workmen, stick

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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: 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:pg27200:51:8
# text = Little Ib, a boy of seven years old and the only child, would sit by, watching the workmen, or cutting a stick, and sometimes his finger instead of the stick.
1	Little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	Ib	Ib	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl:unmarked	_	_
9	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
17	by	by	ADP	IN	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	workmen	workman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	cutting	cut	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	31	advmod	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
32	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	35	case	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	fixed	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit by** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **watch** | gerund |  | the workmen |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent workman=Theme |
| 3 | **cut** | gerund |  | a stick |  |  |  | instead the stick; Jeppe's finger *obl* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset stick=Product |

<!-- .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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