---
title: As darkness came on, towards evening, the great towns looked charmin… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: As darkness came on, towards evening, the great towns looked charming; lights were sparkling, now seen now hidden, just as the sparks go out one after another on a piece of burnt paper. Who acts: great towns, lights, sparks. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, T
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Garden of Paradise, sentence 139

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As darkness came on, towards evening, the great towns looked charming; lights were sparkling, now seen now hidden, just as the sparks go out one after another on a piece of burnt paper.

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**Who acts:** great towns, lights, sparks · **What happens:** come on, look, charm, sparkle, see, hide · **To what, where:** one

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Garden of Paradise. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (great towns, lights, sparks), 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:pg27200:140:139
# text = As darkness came on, towards evening, the great towns looked charming; lights were sparkling, now seen now hidden, just as the sparks go out one after another on a piece of burnt paper.
1	As	as	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	towns	town	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	charming	charm	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
15	lights	light	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	sparkling	sparkle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	20	advmod	_	_
20	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	conj	_	_
21	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	_
22	hidden	hide	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	just	just	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	sparks	spark	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
28	go	go	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	parataxis	_	_
29	out	out	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	obl	_	_
31	after	after	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	30	nmod	_	_
33	on	on	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	burnt	burnt	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come on** | past |  |  |  |  | evening | as darkness | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **look** | past | the great towns |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **charm** | gerund | the great towns *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **sparkle** | past · progressive | lights |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **see** | participle | lights *not said here* |  |  |  | now |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **hide** | participle | lights *not said here* |  |  |  | now |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **go out** | present | the sparks | one after another on a piece of burnt paper |  |  |  |  | vn interact-36.6 «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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