---
title: Only a faint glimmer of light struggled through the horn panes in th… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Only a faint glimmer of light struggled through the horn panes in the little window on the roof, while within sat the old clerk, generally on his bed, singing his evening hymn in a low voice; or he would be moving about in his booth till late in the night, busily employed in many things. Who acts: A
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Only a faint glimmer of light struggled through the horn panes in the little window on the roof, while within sat the old clerk, generally on his bed, singing his evening hymn in a low voice; or he would be moving about in his booth till late in the night, busily employed in many things.

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**Who acts:** Anthony, light · **What happens:** struggle, sit, sing, move about, employ, glimmer · **To what, where:** faint glimmer, horn panes, old clerk, evening hymn, low voice, booth

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Anthony, light), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:128:36
# text = Only a faint glimmer of light struggled through the horn panes in the little window on the roof, while within sat the old clerk, generally on his bed, singing his evening hymn in a low voice; or he would be moving about in his booth till late in the night, busily employed in many things.
1	Only	only	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	faint	faint	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	glimmer	glimmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	struggled	struggle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
8	through	through	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	horn	horn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	panes	pane	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	within	within	ADP	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
22	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	clerk	clerk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	generally	generally	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
28	on	on	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
34	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	_
35	hymn	hymn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	45	punct	_	_
41	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
42	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
43	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	45	aux	_	_
44	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	45	aux	_	_
45	moving	move	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
46	about	about	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	_
47	in	in	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
48	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	49	nmod:poss	_	_
49	booth	booth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	_
50	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	51	mark	_	_
51	late	late	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	advcl	_	_
52	in	in	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
56	busily	busily	ADV	RB	_	57	advmod	_	_
57	employed	employ	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	45	conj	_	_
58	in	in	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
59	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	60	amod	_	_
60	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	57	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **struggle** | participle |  | a faint glimmer of light *not said here* |  | the horn panes |  | in the little window on the roof | vn battle-36.4 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **sit** | past |  | the old clerk and Anthony's bed |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location clerk=Theme |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund |  | Anthony's evening hymn |  | a low voice |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location hymn=Theme |
| 4 | **move about** | would · progressive | Anthony |  |  | Anthony's booth |  | about *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme in booth=Trajectory |
| 5 | **employ** | participle | Anthony *not said here* |  |  | many things |  | busily *property* | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **glimmer** |  | light |  |  |  |  |  | nom glimmer «event intransitive»: of=agent |
| 7 | **hymn** |  | Anthony |  |  |  |  |  | nom hymn «communication intransitive»: poss=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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