---
title: She observed this, and hastened to get back; but before she could do… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: She observed this, and hastened to get back; but before she could do so, the boat was more than a yard from the land, and was gliding quickly onward. Who acts: motion, boat. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/12/21/)

<!-- 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 Snow Queen, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/12/) / 21

# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 2, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She observed this, and hastened to get back; but before she could do so, the boat was more than a yard from the land, and was gliding quickly onward.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** motion, boat · **What happens:** observe, hasten, get back, do, be, glide · **To what, where:** this

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (motion, boat), 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:pg1597:12:21
# text = She observed this, and hastened to get back; but before she could do so, the boat was more than a yard from the land, and was gliding quickly onward.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	observed	observe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	hastened	hasten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
9	back	back	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	obj	_	_
22	than	than	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	yard	yard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	from	from	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	gliding	glide	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
32	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	onward	onward	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **observe** | past | motion | this |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent this=Topic |
| 2 | **hasten** | participle | motion *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **get back** | to-infinitive | motion *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **do** | could | motion |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past | the boat |  |  |  |  | than a yard from the land; more *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **glide** | past · progressive | motion *not said here* |  |  |  |  | onward *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «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.

<!-- 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 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/12/20/)
- next →: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/12/22/)
- ↑ back to [The Snow Queen, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/12/)