---
title: But two winters were past, and in the third the Tree was so large th… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But two winters were past, and in the third the Tree was so large that the hare was obliged to go round it. Who acts: two winters, Tree. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/10/16/)

<!-- 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/) / [Andersen's Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/) / [The Fir Tree](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/10/) / 16

# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, sentence 16

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But two winters were past, and in the third the Tree was so large that the hare was obliged to go round it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** two winters, Tree · **What happens:** be, oblige, go · **To what, where:** third, hare

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (two winters, Tree), 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:pg1597:10:16
# text = But two winters were past, and in the third the Tree was so large that the hare was obliged to go round it.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	winters	winter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	past	past	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	third	third	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Tree	Tree	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	advcl	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	advcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	round	round	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | two winters |  |  |  |  | past *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | the Tree |  |  | the third |  | large *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **oblige** | past · passive |  | the hare |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 4 | **go** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | round hare | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme round it=Initial\_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:** «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 1597 (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 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/10/15/)
- next →: [sentence 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/10/17/)
- ↑ back to [The Fir Tree](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/10/)