---
title: With outspread wings he sank slowly, as a soap bubble sinks in the s… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: With outspread wings he sank slowly, as a soap bubble sinks in the still air, till he touched the water. Who acts: caravan, soap bubble. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-seventh Evening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Twenty-seventh Evening, sentence 4

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With outspread wings he sank slowly, as a soap bubble sinks in the still air, till he touched the water.

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**Who acts:** caravan, soap bubble · **What happens:** sink, touch · **To what, where:** air, water

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-seventh Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (caravan, soap bubble), 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:pg27200:118:4
# text = With outspread wings he sank slowly, as a soap bubble sinks in the still air, till he touched the water.
1	With	with	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	outspread	outspread	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	sank	sink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	soap	soap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	bubble	bubble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	sinks	sink	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	still	still	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sink** | past | caravan |  |  |  |  | with outspread wings; slowly *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with wing=Instrument |
| 2 | **sink** | present | a soap bubble |  |  | the air |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **touch** | past | caravan | the water |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme water=Co-Theme |

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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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