---
title: "Help the gentleman to carry his box of colors," said the woman to t… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Help the gentleman to carry his box of colors," said the woman to the boy; and he obeyed instantly, took the box, and followed the painter. Who acts: gentleman, woman. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Metal Pig, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/89/109/)

<!-- 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 Metal Pig](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/89/) / 109

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Metal Pig, sentence 109

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Help the gentleman to carry his box of colors," said the woman to the boy; and he obeyed instantly, took the box, and followed the painter.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** gentleman, woman · **What happens:** help, carry, say, obey, take, follow · **To what, where:** gentleman, box, painter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Metal Pig. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gentleman, woman), 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:pg27200:89:109
# text = "Help the gentleman to carry his box of colors," said the woman to the boy; and he obeyed instantly, took the box, and followed the painter.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	colors	color	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	obeyed	obey	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
23	instantly	instantly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	followed	follow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	painter	painter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **help** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the gentleman |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent gentleman=Beneficiary clause=Theme |
| 2 | **carry** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the gentleman *not said here* | gentleman's box of colors |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent box=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the woman to the boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **obey** | past | gentleman |  |  |  |  | instantly *property* | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **take** | past | gentleman *not said here* | the box |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent box=Theme |
| 6 | **follow** | past | gentleman *not said here* | the painter |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent painter=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.

<!-- 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 108](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/89/108/)
- next →: [sentence 110](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/89/110/)
- ↑ back to [The Metal Pig](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/89/)