---
title: The coffin in its covering of straw tumbled out of the van, and was… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The coffin in its covering of straw tumbled out of the van, and was left on the high-road, while horses, coachman, and carriage flew past in wild career. Who acts: coffin. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Tenth Evening, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Tenth Evening, sentence 21

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The coffin in its covering of straw tumbled out of the van, and was left on the high-road, while horses, coachman, and carriage flew past in wild career.

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**Who acts:** coffin · **What happens:** tumble, leave, fly · **To what, where:** straw, van, coffin, high road, wild career

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Tenth Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (coffin), 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:pg27200:101:21
# text = The coffin in its covering of straw tumbled out of the van, and was left on the high-road, while horses, coachman, and carriage flew past in wild career.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	coffin	coffin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	covering	covering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	straw	straw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	tumbled	tumble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	van	van	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
19	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	coachman	coachman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	carriage	carriage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
31	past	past	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	career	career	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	30	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tumble** | participle |  | straw *not said here* |  | the van |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme out van=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **leave** | past · passive |  | the coffin in coffin's covering of straw *not said here* |  | the high road |  | while horses and coachman | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: on road=Location |
| 3 | **fly** | past | the coffin in coffin's covering of straw |  |  | wild career |  | past *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in career=Location |

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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:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (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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