---
title: The child still sat, in the stiffness of death, holding the matches… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The child still sat, in the stiffness of death, holding the matches in her hand, one bundle of which was burnt. " Who acts: child. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Match-seller, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Match-seller, sentence 40

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The child still sat, in the stiffness of death, holding the matches in her hand, one bundle of which was burnt. "

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**Who acts:** child · **What happens:** sit, hold, burnt · **To what, where:** stiffness, matches, hand

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Match-seller. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (child), 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:pg27200:74:40
# text = The child still sat, in the stiffness of death, holding the matches in her hand, one bundle of which was burnt. "
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	still	still	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	stiffness	stiffness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	matches	match	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	bundle	bundle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	obl	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	burnt	burnt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
26	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | the child |  |  | the stiffness of death | still |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in stiffness=Location |
| 2 | **hold** | gerund | the child *not said here* | the matches |  | grandmother's hand |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent match=Theme in hand=Location |
| 3 | **burnt** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  | of one bundle | tree rules |

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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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