---
title: The priest placed himself before her, to defend and shelter her; but… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The priest placed himself before her, to defend and shelter her; but one of the robbers swung his iron axe against the Christian's head with such force that it was dashed to pieces, the blood and brains were scattered about, and he fell dead upon the ground. Who acts: priest, one, pieces. A sentence
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/86/47/)

<!-- 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 Marsh King's Daughter, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/86/) / 47

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 4, sentence 47

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The priest placed himself before her, to defend and shelter her; but one of the robbers swung his iron axe against the Christian's head with such force that it was dashed to pieces, the blood and brains were scattered about, and he fell dead upon the ground.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** priest, one, pieces · **What happens:** place, defend, shelter, swing, dash, scatter · **To what, where:** priest, animal, iron axe, head, axe, brains

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, 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 (priest, one, pieces), 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:pg27200:86:47
# text = The priest placed himself before her, to defend and shelter her; but one of the robbers swung his iron axe against the Christian's head with such force that it was dashed to pieces, the blood and brains were scattered about, and he fell dead upon the ground.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	priest	priest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	before	before	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	defend	defend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	shelter	shelter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
12	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nsubj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	robbers	robber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
19	swung	swing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	iron	iron	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
23	against	against	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	Christian	Christian	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	's	's	PART	POS	_	25	case	_	_
27	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	force	force	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj:pass	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux:pass	_	_
34	dashed	dash	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	advcl	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	conj	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
41	brains	brain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	nsubj:pass	_	_
42	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	aux:pass	_	_
43	scattered	scatter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	36	acl:relcl	_	_
44	about	about	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
47	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj	_	_
48	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
49	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	xcomp	_	_
50	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
52	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **place** | past | the priest | priest |  |  | before animal |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent himself=Theme before she=Destination |
| 2 | **defend** | to-infinitive | the priest *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **shelter** | infinitive | the priest *not said here* | animal |  |  |  |  | vn concealment-16 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient |
| 4 | **swing** | past | one of the robbers | priest's iron axe |  | the Christian's head |  | with such force | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent axe=Theme against head=Location |
| 5 | **dash** | past · passive |  | axe |  |  |  | to pieces and the blood *result* | vn hit-18.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: subject=Patient to piece=Result |
| 6 | **scatter** | past · passive | pieces and the blood *not said here* | brains |  |  |  | about *property* | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: subject=Theme |
| 7 | **fall** | past | priest |  |  | the ground |  | dead *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon ground=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 46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/86/46/)
- next →: [sentence 48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/86/48/)
- ↑ back to [The Marsh King's Daughter, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/86/)