---
title: The poor boy sat there with his sister on his lap, and sung to her a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The poor boy sat there with his sister on his lap, and sung to her all the songs he knew, and now and then he looked into his geography lesson that lay open before him. Who acts: poor boy, boy, geography lesson. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Tuk, wi
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Little Tuk, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The poor boy sat there with his sister on his lap, and sung to her all the songs he knew, and now and then he looked into his geography lesson that lay open before him.

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**Who acts:** poor boy, boy, geography lesson · **What happens:** sit, sing, know, look, lie · **To what, where:** lap, Gustava, songs

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Tuk. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor boy, boy, geography lesson), 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:pg27200:80:4
# text = The poor boy sat there with his sister on his lap, and sung to her all the songs he knew, and now and then he looked into his geography lesson that lay open before him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	lap	lap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	sung	sing	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	_
17	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	19	det:predet	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	songs	song	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
29	into	into	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
31	geography	geography	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	_
32	lesson	lesson	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
33	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	34	nsubj	_	_
34	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	acl:relcl	_	_
35	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	xcomp	_	_
36	before	before	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | the poor boy |  |  | boy's lap; there |  | with boy's sister | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on lap=Location |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | participle |  |  | Gustava |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to she=Recipient |
| 3 | **know** | past | boy | all songs *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer song=Stimulus |
| 4 | **look** | past | boy |  |  |  | now; then | into boy's geography lesson | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent into lesson=Theme |
| 5 | **lie** | past | boy's geography lesson |  |  |  | before boy | open *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before he=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.

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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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