---
title: The elder-tree spreads its branches over it, and the cock struts abo… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The elder-tree spreads its branches over it, and the cock struts about and scratches for the hens. Who acts: elder tree, cock. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Elder-tree Mother, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/72/74/)

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Elder-tree Mother, sentence 74

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The elder-tree spreads its branches over it, and the cock struts about and scratches for the hens.

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**Who acts:** elder tree, cock · **What happens:** spread, strut, scratch · **To what, where:** branches, stove

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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 (elder tree, cock), 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:pg27200:72:74
# text = The elder-tree spreads its branches over it, and the cock struts about and scratches for the hens.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	spreads	spread	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	over	over	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	cock	cock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	struts	strut	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
15	about	about	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	scratches	scratch	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	hens	hen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spread** | present | the elder tree | tree's branches |  | stove |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent branch=Theme over it=Destination |
| 2 | **strut** | present | the cock |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **scratch** | present | the cock *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the hens | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for hen=Theme |

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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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