---
title: Our old grandmother moans so for you, that her white hair is falling… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Our old grandmother moans so for you, that her white hair is falling off from sorrow, as ours fell under the witch's scissors. Who acts: old grandmother, white hair, ours. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 4, with its dependency tree a
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/78/28/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Little Mermaid, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/78/) / 28

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 4, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Our old grandmother moans so for you, that her white hair is falling off from sorrow, as ours fell under the witch's scissors.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old grandmother, white hair, ours · **What happens:** moan, fall off, fall · **To what, where:** sorrow, scissors

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old grandmother, white hair, ours), 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:pg27200:78:28
# text = Our old grandmother moans so for you, that her white hair is falling off from sorrow, as ours fell under the witch's scissors.
1	Our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	grandmother	grandmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	moans	moan	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
15	off	off	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	ours	our	PRON	PRP	Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
22	under	under	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	's	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	scissors	scissors	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **moan** | present | Our old grandmother |  |  |  |  | for you | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient S\_INF»: agent=Agent for you=Recipient |
| 2 | **fall off** | present · progressive | grandmother's white hair |  |  | sorrow |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **fall** | past | ours |  |  | the witch's scissors |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme under scissors=Location |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/78/27/)
- next →: [sentence 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/78/29/)
- ↑ back to [The Little Mermaid, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/78/)