---
title: He tied her head and tail; but she barked and jumped, and so pulled… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He tied her head and tail; but she barked and jumped, and so pulled and tightened the string, that she was nearly strangled; and just then her mistress walked in. Who acts: boy, Bellissima, mistress. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Metal Pig, with its de
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Metal Pig, sentence 177

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He tied her head and tail; but she barked and jumped, and so pulled and tightened the string, that she was nearly strangled; and just then her mistress walked in.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** boy, Bellissima, mistress · **What happens:** tie, bark, jump, pull, tighten, strangle · **To what, where:** head, string, Bellissima

<!-- .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 (boy, Bellissima, mistress), 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:pg27200:89:177
# text = He tied her head and tail; but she barked and jumped, and so pulled and tightened the string, that she was nearly strangled; and just then her mistress walked in.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tied	tie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	barked	bark	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	jumped	jump	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	pulled	pull	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	parataxis	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	tightened	tighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	string	string	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
25	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	strangled	strangle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	33	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
29	just	just	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	33	advmod	_	_
31	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	mistress	mistress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
33	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
34	in	in	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tie** | past | boy | Bellissima's head and tail |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 2 | **bark** | past | Bellissima |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **jump** | past | Bellissima *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **pull** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **tighten** | participle |  | the string |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent string=Patient |
| 6 | **strangle** | past · passive |  | Bellissima |  |  |  | nearly *property* | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 7 | **walk in** | past | Bellissima's mistress |  |  |  | then |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «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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