---
title: And he seized hold of the creeping-plants, and the roots of trees--c… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And he seized hold of the creeping-plants, and the roots of trees--climbed up the moist stones where the water-snakes were writhing and the toads were croaking--and he gained the summit before the sun had quite gone down. Who acts: tone, water snakes, toads, sun. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tale
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Bell, sentence 62

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And he seized hold of the creeping-plants, and the roots of trees--climbed up the moist stones where the water-snakes were writhing and the toads were croaking--and he gained the summit before the sun had quite gone down.

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**Who acts:** tone, water snakes, toads, sun · **What happens:** seize, climb up, be, croak, gain, go down · **To what, where:** hold, roots, writhing, summit, creeping plants

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Bell. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tone, water snakes, toads, sun), 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:pg1597:18:62
# text = And he seized hold of the creeping-plants, and the roots of trees--climbed up the moist stones where the water-snakes were writhing and the toads were croaking--and he gained the summit before the sun had quite gone down.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	creeping	creeping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	plants	plant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	climbed	climb	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
18	up	up	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	moist	moist	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
22	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	28	advmod	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	snakes	snake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
28	writhing	writhing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	toads	toad	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
32	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	croaking	croak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	gained	gain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	summit	summit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	_
40	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	45	mark	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nsubj	_	_
43	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	45	aux	_	_
44	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	_
45	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	37	advcl	_	_
46	down	down	ADP	RP	_	45	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | past | tone | hold of the creeping plants |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme |
| 2 | **climb up** | participle · passive |  | the roots of trees |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | past | the water snakes | writhing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **croak** | past · progressive | the toads |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **gain** | past | tone | the summit |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent summit=Theme |
| 6 | **go down** | past · perfect | the sun |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 7 | **hold** |  |  | the creeping plants |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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