---
title: The farmer's wife and the sexton were sitting at the table together;… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The farmer's wife and the sexton were sitting at the table together; and she filled his glass, and helped him plenteously to fish, which appeared to be his favorite dish. " Who acts: wife, fish. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Claus and Big Claus, wit
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Little Claus and Big Claus, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The farmer's wife and the sexton were sitting at the table together; and she filled his glass, and helped him plenteously to fish, which appeared to be his favorite dish. "

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wife, fish · **What happens:** sit, fill, help, appear, be · **To what, where:** table, glass, Claus, favorite dish

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Claus and Big Claus. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, fish), 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:pg27200:71:28
# text = The farmer's wife and the sexton were sitting at the table together; and she filled his glass, and helped him plenteously to fish, which appeared to be his favorite dish. "
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sexton	sexton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	together	together	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	filled	fill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	glass	glass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	helped	help	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	plenteously	plenteously	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
29	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	cop	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
33	favorite	favorite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	dish	dish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
36	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | the farmer's wife and the sexton |  |  | the table |  | together *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at table=Location |
| 2 | **fill** | past | wife | Claus's glass |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent glass=Patient |
| 3 | **help** | past | wife *not said here* |  | Claus |  |  | to fish | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **appear** | past | fish |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | to-infinitive | fish *not said here* | Claus's favorite dish |  |  |  |  | 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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