---
title: Leaning against the Sphinx, he lies there thoughtful and meditative,… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Leaning against the Sphinx, he lies there thoughtful and meditative, as if he were thinking on the rolling centuries; and little love-gods sport with him and with the crocodiles. Who acts: stone. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-third Evening, with its
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Twenty-third Evening, sentence 26

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Leaning against the Sphinx, he lies there thoughtful and meditative, as if he were thinking on the rolling centuries; and little love-gods sport with him and with the crocodiles.

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**Who acts:** stone · **What happens:** lean, lie, think, roll · **To what, where:** Sphinx

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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 (stone), 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:pg27200:114:26
# text = Leaning against the Sphinx, he lies there thoughtful and meditative, as if he were thinking on the rolling centuries; and little love-gods sport with him and with the crocodiles.
1	Leaning	lean	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	csubj	_	_
2	against	against	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Sphinx	Sphinx	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	lies	lie	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
9	thoughtful	thoughtful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	xcomp	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	meditative	meditative	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	rolling	roll	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	amod	_	_
21	centuries	century	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
25	love	love	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	gods	god	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	compound	_	_
28	sport	sport	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nmod	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	crocodiles	crocodile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lean** | gerund |  |  |  | the Sphinx |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent against sphinx=Location |
| 2 | **lie** | present | stone |  |  | there |  | thoughtful *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past · progressive | stone |  |  |  | century |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **roll** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP 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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