---
title: Tiny had to turn the spindle, and the field-mouse hired four spiders… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Tiny had to turn the spindle, and the field-mouse hired four spiders, who were to weave day and night. Who acts: Tiny, field mouse, four spiders. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Tiny or Thumbelina, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Little Tiny or Thumbelina, sentence 129

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Tiny had to turn the spindle, and the field-mouse hired four spiders, who were to weave day and night.

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**Who acts:** Tiny, field mouse, four spiders · **What happens:** have, turn, hire, weave · **To what, where:** spindle, four spiders

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Tiny or Thumbelina. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tiny, field mouse, four spiders), 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:pg27200:79:129
# text = Tiny had to turn the spindle, and the field-mouse hired four spiders, who were to weave day and night.
1	Tiny	Tiny	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	spindle	spindle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	hired	hire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
15	spiders	spider	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	weave	weave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl:relcl	_	_
21	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Tiny |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **turn** | to-infinitive | Tiny *not said here* | the spindle |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent spindle=Theme |
| 3 | **hire** | past | the field mouse | four spiders |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spider=Theme |
| 4 | **weave** | past | four spiders | four spiders *not said here* |  |  | day |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=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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