---
title: The roof reached to the ground; and the door was so low, that the fa… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The roof reached to the ground; and the door was so low, that the family were obliged to creep upon their stomachs when they went in or out. Who acts: roof, door, bread. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 4, sentence 95

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The roof reached to the ground; and the door was so low, that the family were obliged to creep upon their stomachs when they went in or out.

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**Who acts:** roof, door, bread · **What happens:** reach, be, oblige, creep, go · **To what, where:** family, stomachs

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, 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 (roof, door, bread), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg1597:14:95
# text = The roof reached to the ground; and the door was so low, that the family were obliged to creep upon their stomachs when they went in or out.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	creep	creep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	stomachs	stomach	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
25	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	advmod	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
28	in	in	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
29	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	out	out	ADV	RB	_	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | the roof |  |  |  |  | to the ground | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | the door |  |  |  |  | low *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **oblige** | past · passive |  | the family |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 4 | **creep** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | bread's stomachs |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon stomach=Trajectory |
| 5 | **go** | past | bread |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «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:** «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.

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