---
title: He looked round once more, to see if father and mother were still as… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He looked round once more, to see if father and mother were still asleep--yes, they slept; and now he crept softly, softly, in his short little nightgown, to the spinning wheel, and began to spin. Who acts: pendulum, father. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, T
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Twenty-third Evening, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He looked round once more, to see if father and mother were still asleep--yes, they slept; and now he crept softly, softly, in his short little nightgown, to the spinning wheel, and began to spin.

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**Who acts:** pendulum, father · **What happens:** look round, see, be, sleep, creep, spin · **To what, where:** short little nightgown

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-third Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pendulum, father), 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:pg27200:114:13
# text = He looked round once more, to see if father and mother were still asleep--yes, they slept; and now he crept softly, softly, in his short little nightgown, to the spinning wheel, and began to spin.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	round	round	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	5	advmod	_	_
5	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
10	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	still	still	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	20	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	slept	sleep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	25	advmod	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
26	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
32	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
33	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	nightgown	nightgown	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
36	to	to	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	39	amod	_	_
39	wheel	wheel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
43	to	to	PART	TO	_	44	mark	_	_
44	spin	spin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look round** | past | pendulum |  |  |  |  | round *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **see** | to-infinitive | pendulum *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | father and mother |  |  |  | still | asleep *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **sleep** | past | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **creep** | past | pendulum |  |  | pendulum's short little nightgown | now | to the spinning wheel; softly *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in nightgown=Trajectory |
| 6 | **spin** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **begin** | past | pendulum *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 8 | **spin** | to-infinitive | pendulum *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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