---
title: The poor emperor, finding he could scarcely breathe with a strange w… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The poor emperor, finding he could scarcely breathe with a strange weight on his chest, opened his eyes, and saw Death sitting there. Who acts: poor emperor, emperor, Death. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Nightingale, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Nightingale, sentence 118

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The poor emperor, finding he could scarcely breathe with a strange weight on his chest, opened his eyes, and saw Death sitting there.

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**Who acts:** poor emperor, emperor, Death · **What happens:** find, breathe, open, see, sit · **To what, where:** chest, eyes, Death · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Nightingale. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor emperor, emperor, Death), 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:pg27200:125:118
# text = The poor emperor, finding he could scarcely breathe with a strange weight on his chest, opened his eyes, and saw Death sitting there.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	finding	find	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	acl	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	breathe	breathe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	weight	weight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	chest	chest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
18	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
24	Death	Death	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
25	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	xcomp	_	_
26	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | gerund | the poor emperor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **breathe** | could | emperor |  |  | emperor's chest |  | with a strange weight; scarcely *property* | vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Agent on chest=Destination |
| 3 | **open** | past | the poor emperor | emperor's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location eye=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | past | the poor emperor *not said here* | Death |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **sit** | gerund | Death *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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