---
title: Then the leaves, which are its fingers, stung him so sharply that he… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the leaves, which are its fingers, stung him so sharply that he has never ventured to touch a nettle since." Who acts: leaves, professor. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Ida's Flowers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Little Ida's Flowers, sentence 56

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Then the leaves, which are its fingers, stung him so sharply that he has never ventured to touch a nettle since."

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**Who acts:** leaves, professor · **What happens:** be, sting, not venture, touch · **To what, where:** fingers, professor, nettle

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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 (leaves, professor), 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:pg27200:73:56
# text = Then the leaves, which are its fingers, stung him so sharply that he has never ventured to touch a nettle since."
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
6	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	stung	sting	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	sharply	sharply	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	ventured	venture	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	nettle	nettle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	since	since	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the leaves | nonsense's fingers |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **sting** | past | the leaves | professor |  |  | then | sharply *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 3 | **not** **venture** | present · perfect | professor |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **touch** | to-infinitive | professor *not said here* | a nettle |  |  |  | since *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme nettle=Co-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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