---
title: It was so pale, the small eyes had closed themselves, and it drew it… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was so pale, the small eyes had closed themselves, and it drew its breath so softly, now and then, with a deep respiration, as if it sighed; and the mother looked still more sorrowfully on the little creature. Who acts: child, mother. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The 
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Story of a Mother, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was so pale, the small eyes had closed themselves, and it drew its breath so softly, now and then, with a deep respiration, as if it sighed; and the mother looked still more sorrowfully on the little creature.

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**Who acts:** child, mother · **What happens:** be, close, draw, sigh, look · **To what, where:** small eyes, breath, more, little creature

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of a Mother. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (child, mother), 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:pg1597:21:3
# text = It was so pale, the small eyes had closed themselves, and it drew its breath so softly, now and then, with a deep respiration, as if it sighed; and the mother looked still more sorrowfully on the little creature.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	pale	pale	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	closed	close	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
11	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	respiration	respiration	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
31	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	sighed	sigh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	_
38	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
39	still	still	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	38	obj	_	_
41	sorrowfully	sorrowfully	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
42	on	on	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
44	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | child |  |  |  |  | pale *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **close** | past · perfect · passive |  | the small eyes |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **draw** | past | child | child's breath |  |  | now | softly *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent breath=Theme |
| 4 | **sigh** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | child |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **look** | past | the mother | more |  | the little creature |  | sorrowfully *property* | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme more=Attribute |

<!-- .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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