---
title: He had an earnest, expressive countenance, and held the box containi… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He had an earnest, expressive countenance, and held the box containing his carved toys tightly with both hands, as if unwilling to part with it. Who acts: boy, box. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, I. Little Rudy, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, I. Little Rudy, sentence 16

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He had an earnest, expressive countenance, and held the box containing his carved toys tightly with both hands, as if unwilling to part with it.

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**Who acts:** boy, box · **What happens:** have, hold, contain, carve, unwill · **To what, where:** earnest expressive countenance, box, carved toys, part

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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 (boy, box), 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:pg27200:52:16
# text = He had an earnest, expressive countenance, and held the box containing his carved toys tightly with both hands, as if unwilling to part with it.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
4	earnest	earn	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	7	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	expressive	expressive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	countenance	countenance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	containing	contain	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	acl	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	carved	carve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	amod	_	_
16	toys	toy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
17	tightly	tightly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	20	det	_	_
20	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
24	unwilling	unwill	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	xcomp	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | boy | a earnest expressive countenance |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent countenance=Patient |
| 2 | **hold** | past |  | the box |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent box=Theme |
| 3 | **contain** | gerund | the box *not said here* | boy's carved toys |  |  |  | with both hands; tightly *property* | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot toy=Theme |
| 4 | **carve** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **unwill** | gerund |  | part with box |  |  |  |  | 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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