---
title: In the middle of the empty, endless hall of snow, was a frozen lake;… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In the middle of the empty, endless hall of snow, was a frozen lake; it was cracked in a thousand pieces, but each piece was so like the other, that it seemed the work of a cunning artificer. Who acts: frozen lake, piece, it, cunning artificer. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Anderse
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 5, sentence 17

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In the middle of the empty, endless hall of snow, was a frozen lake; it was cracked in a thousand pieces, but each piece was so like the other, that it seemed the work of a cunning artificer.

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**Who acts:** frozen lake, piece, it, cunning artificer · **What happens:** freeze, be, crack, seem, work · **To what, where:** frozen lake, middle, lake, thousand pieces, work

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (frozen lake, piece, it, cunning artificer), 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:pg1597:15:17
# text = In the middle of the empty, endless hall of snow, was a frozen lake; it was cracked in a thousand pieces, but each piece was so like the other, that it seemed the work of a cunning artificer.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
6	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	endless	endless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	frozen	freeze	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	amod	_	_
16	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	cracked	crack	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl:relcl	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	nummod	_	_
24	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
27	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	28	det	_	_
28	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
30	so	so	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
31	like	like	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
36	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
41	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
42	cunning	cunning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	compound	_	_
43	artificer	artificer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **freeze** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | a frozen lake |  | the middle of the empty endless hall of snow |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **crack** | past · passive | a frozen lake *not said here* | lake |  | a thousand pieces |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | each piece |  |  |  |  | other *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **seem** | past | it | the work of a cunning artificer |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme work=Attribute |
| 6 | **work** |  | a cunning artificer |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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