---
title: There was life in this stick for the little ones, for as soon as the… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: There was life in this stick for the little ones, for as soon as they seated themselves upon it the polished knob turned into a neighing horse's head, a long black mane was fluttering in the wind, and four strong slender legs grew out. Who acts: life, eyes, long black mane, four strong slender legs.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Elder-tree Mother, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was life in this stick for the little ones, for as soon as they seated themselves upon it the polished knob turned into a neighing horse's head, a long black mane was fluttering in the wind, and four strong slender legs grew out.

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**Who acts:** life, eyes, long black mane, four strong slender legs · **What happens:** be, seat, polish, turn, neigh, flutter · **To what, where:** stick, eyes, polished knob, head

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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 (life, eyes, long black mane, four strong slender legs), 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:pg27200:72:69
# text = There was life in this stick for the little ones, for as soon as they seated themselves upon it the polished knob turned into a neighing horse's head, a long black mane was fluttering in the wind, and four strong slender legs grew out.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	as	as	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	seated	seat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
18	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obj	_	_
19	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	polished	polish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	amod	_	_
23	knob	knob	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
24	turned	turn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	acl	_	_
25	into	into	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	neighing	neigh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	28	amod	_	_
28	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	's	's	PART	POS	_	28	case	_	_
30	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
33	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
34	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	mane	mane	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
36	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	fluttering	flutter	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	acl	_	_
38	in	in	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
43	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	46	nummod	_	_
44	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
45	slender	slender	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
46	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	nsubj	_	_
47	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
48	out	out	ADP	RP	_	47	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | life |  |  | this stick for the little ones; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in stick=Location |
| 2 | **seat** | past | eyes *= eye* | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  | upon stick; soon *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **polish** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **turn** | participle |  | the polished knob *not said here* |  | a neighing horse's head |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into head=Trajectory |
| 5 | **neigh** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **flutter** | past · progressive | a long black mane | the polished knob *not said here* |  |  |  | in the wind | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent knob=Patient in wind=Topic |
| 7 | **grow out** | past | four strong slender legs |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=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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