---
title: It took its direction towards the body in a straight line; and a few… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It took its direction towards the body in a straight line; and a few seconds after, life began to show itself in the man. Who acts: It, life. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/7/9/)

<!-- 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 Shoes of Fortune, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/7/) / 9

# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shoes of Fortune, part 3, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It took its direction towards the body in a straight line; and a few seconds after, life began to show itself in the man.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, life · **What happens:** take, begin, show · **To what, where:** direction, straight line, body

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, life), 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:pg1597:7:9
# text = It took its direction towards the body in a straight line; and a few seconds after, life began to show itself in the man.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	direction	direction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	straight	straight	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	line	line	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	seconds	second	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl:unmarked	_	_
17	after	after	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	22	obj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | It | body's direction |  | a straight line |  | towards the body | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent direction=Value in line=Location |
| 2 | **begin** | past | life |  |  |  |  | after *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **show** | to-infinitive | life *not said here* | body |  |  |  | in the man | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent itself=Patient in man=Topic |

<!-- .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 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/7/8/)
- next →: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/7/10/)
- ↑ back to [The Shoes of Fortune, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/7/)