---
title: It was winter, and the windows were quite frozen, so the little boy… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It was winter, and the windows were quite frozen, so the little boy was obliged to breathe on the panes, and rub a hole to peep through at the old house. Who acts: piano, winter. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old House, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old House, sentence 111

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was winter, and the windows were quite frozen, so the little boy was obliged to breathe on the panes, and rub a hole to peep through at the old house.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** piano, winter · **What happens:** be, freeze, oblige, breathe, rub, peep · **To what, where:** winter, windows, little boy, panes, hole

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old House. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (piano, winter), 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:pg27200:131:111
# text = It was winter, and the windows were quite frozen, so the little boy was obliged to breathe on the panes, and rub a hole to peep through at the old house.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	windows	window	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
9	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	frozen	freeze	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	breathe	breathe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	panes	pane	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	rub	rub	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	peep	peep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	acl	_	_
30	through	through	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
31	at	at	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | piano | winter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **freeze** | past · passive | winter *not said here* | the windows |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Result |
| 3 | **oblige** | past · passive |  | the little boy |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 4 | **breathe** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | the panes |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Agent on pane=Destination |
| 5 | **rub** | infinitive |  | a hole |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent hole=Theme |
| 6 | **peep** | to-infinitive |  | a hole *not said here* |  |  |  | through the old house | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent through house=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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