---
title: The old steward of the castle, who has to watch there at night, some… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The old steward of the castle, who has to watch there at night, sometimes comes in; but he carries a great bunch of keys, and as soon as the flowers hear the keys rattle, they run and hide themselves behind the long curtains, and stand quite still, just peeping their heads out. Who acts: old steward
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Little Ida's Flowers, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old steward of the castle, who has to watch there at night, sometimes comes in; but he carries a great bunch of keys, and as soon as the flowers hear the keys rattle, they run and hide themselves behind the long curtains, and stand quite still, just peeping their heads out.

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**Who acts:** old steward, steward, flowers, keys · **What happens:** have, watch, come in, carry, hear, rattle · **To what, where:** great bunch, flowers, long curtains, heads

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Ida's Flowers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old steward, steward, flowers, keys), 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:pg27200:73:27
# text = The old steward of the castle, who has to watch there at night, sometimes comes in; but he carries a great bunch of keys, and as soon as the flowers hear the keys rattle, they run and hide themselves behind the long curtains, and stand quite still, just peeping their heads out.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	steward	steward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	17	advmod	_	_
17	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
18	in	in	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	carries	carry	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	bunch	bunch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	keys	key	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
30	as	as	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	35	advmod	_	_
32	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nsubj	_	_
35	hear	hear	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	keys	key	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nsubj	_	_
38	rattle	rattle	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
40	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
41	run	run	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
43	hide	hide	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	41	conj	_	_
44	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	43	obj	_	_
45	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	curtains	curtain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	stand	stand	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	41	conj	_	_
52	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	_
53	still	still	ADV	RB	_	51	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	56	punct	_	_
55	just	just	ADV	RB	_	56	advmod	_	_
56	peeping	peep	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	51	advcl	_	_
57	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	58	nmod:poss	_	_
58	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	56	obj	_	_
59	out	out	ADV	RB	_	56	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | the old steward of the castle |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **watch** | to-infinitive | the old steward of the castle *not said here* |  |  | there | night |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **come in** | present | the old steward of the castle *not said here* |  |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **carry** | present | steward | a great bunch of keys |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bunch=Theme |
| 5 | **hear** | present | the flowers |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **rattle** | present | the keys |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **run** | present | flowers *= flower* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **hide** | present | flowers *= flower* *not said here* | flowers *= flower* |  | the long curtains |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent themselves=Patient behind curtain=Location |
| 9 | **stand** | present | flowers *= flower* *not said here* |  |  |  | still |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 10 | **peep out** | gerund | flowers *= flower* *not said here* | flowers's heads |  |  |  | out *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent head=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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