---
title: About twenty years ago, there might be seen occasionally, standing a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: About twenty years ago, there might be seen occasionally, standing at a short distance from the other children, a little boy, who was also anxious to sell his curious wares. Who acts: little boy. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, I. Little Rudy, with its depen
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, I. Little Rudy, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
About twenty years ago, there might be seen occasionally, standing at a short distance from the other children, a little boy, who was also anxious to sell his curious wares.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little boy · **What happens:** see, stand, be, sell · **To what, where:** curious wares

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, I. Little Rudy. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little boy), 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:pg27200:52:15
# text = About twenty years ago, there might be seen occasionally, standing at a short distance from the other children, a little boy, who was also anxious to sell his curious wares.
1	About	about	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
7	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	occasionally	occasionally	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	also	also	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	anxious	anxious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	acl:relcl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	sell	sell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
33	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	wares	ware	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | might · passive |  |  |  | there |  | ago, occasionally *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V» |
| 2 | **stand** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | at a short distance from the other children and a little boy | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at distance=Location |
| 3 | **is** | past | a little boy |  |  |  |  | anxious *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **sell** | to-infinitive | a little boy *not said here* | boy's curious wares |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ware=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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