---
title: In the midst of the tree sat a kindly-looking old woman with a stran… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: In the midst of the tree sat a kindly-looking old woman with a strange dress; it was as green as the leaves, and trimmed with large white blossoms, so that it was difficult to say whether it was real cloth, or the leaves and blossoms of the elder-tree. Who acts: tree. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of H
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Elder-tree Mother, sentence 23

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In the midst of the tree sat a kindly-looking old woman with a strange dress; it was as green as the leaves, and trimmed with large white blossoms, so that it was difficult to say whether it was real cloth, or the leaves and blossoms of the elder-tree.

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**Who acts:** tree · **What happens:** sit, look, be, trim, say · **To what, where:** looking old woman, midst, real cloth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (tree), 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:pg27200:72:23
# text = In the midst of the tree sat a kindly-looking old woman with a strange dress; it was as green as the leaves, and trimmed with large white blossoms, so that it was difficult to say whether it was real cloth, or the leaves and blossoms of the elder-tree.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
9	kindly	kindly	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	amod	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	dress	dress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	as	as	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
23	as	as	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	trimmed	trim	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	parataxis	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
31	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	blossoms	blossom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
34	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	38	mark	_	_
35	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	fixed	_	_
36	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	expl	_	_
37	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	cop	_	_
38	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	conj	_	_
39	to	to	PART	TO	_	40	mark	_	_
40	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	csubj	_	_
41	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	45	mark	_	_
42	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
43	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	45	cop	_	_
44	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
47	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
49	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	appos	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	blossoms	blossom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	conj	_	_
52	of	of	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
54	elder	elder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	54	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past |  | a looking old woman |  | the midst of the tree |  | with a strange dress | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent woman=Theme in midst=Location |
| 2 | **look** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | kindly *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **is** | past | tree |  |  |  |  | as the leaves; green *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **trim** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | with large white blossoms | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with blossom=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | difficult *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is a** | past | tree | real cloth |  |  |  |  | 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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