---
title: On the margin of the sandy desert, in a salt plain, that shone like… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: On the margin of the sandy desert, in a salt plain, that shone like a frozen lake, and was only covered in spots with light drifting sand, a halt was made. Who acts: that. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twentieth Evening, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Twentieth Evening, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On the margin of the sandy desert, in a salt plain, that shone like a frozen lake, and was only covered in spots with light drifting sand, a halt was made.

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**Who acts:** that · **What happens:** shine, freeze, cover, drift, make · **To what, where:** halt, margin

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twentieth Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (that), 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:pg27200:111:5
# text = On the margin of the sandy desert, in a salt plain, that shone like a frozen lake, and was only covered in spots with light drifting sand, a halt was made.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	margin	margin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	sandy	sandy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	desert	desert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	salt	salt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	plain	plain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	shone	shine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
16	like	like	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	frozen	freeze	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	amod	_	_
19	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
23	only	only	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	conj	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	spots	spot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
29	drifting	drift	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	amod	_	_
30	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	halt	halt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj:pass	_	_
34	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux:pass	_	_
35	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	35	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shine** | past | that |  |  |  |  | like a frozen lake | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **freeze** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **cover** | past · passive | that *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in spots with light and drifting sand | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: in spot=Theme |
| 4 | **drift** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **make** | past · passive |  | a halt |  | the margin of the sandy desert |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |

<!-- .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:** «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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