---
title: And the old man opened his prayer-book; the elder-blossom was still… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: And the old man opened his prayer-book; the elder-blossom was still in it, and as fresh as if it had only just been put in. Who acts: old man, elder blossom. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Elder-tree Mother, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/72/121/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Little Elder-tree Mother](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/72/) / 121

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Elder-tree Mother, sentence 121

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the old man opened his prayer-book; the elder-blossom was still in it, and as fresh as if it had only just been put in.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old man, elder blossom · **What happens:** open, be, put in · **To what, where:** prayer book, book

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Elder-tree Mother. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, elder blossom), 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:pg27200:72:121
# text = And the old man opened his prayer-book; the elder-blossom was still in it, and as fresh as if it had only just been put in.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
7	prayer	prayer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	blossom	blossom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	still	still	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	as	as	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	fresh	fresh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	_
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
24	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
27	only	only	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
28	just	just	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	advcl	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | past | the old man | man's prayer book |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location book=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | the elder blossom |  |  | book | still |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **put in** | past · perfect · passive |  | book |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: subject=Goal |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 120](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/72/120/)
- next →: [sentence 122](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/72/122/)
- ↑ back to [The Little Elder-tree Mother](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/72/)