---
title: Sometimes it was so narrow that they had to creep on their hands and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Sometimes it was so narrow that they had to creep on their hands and knees, while at other times it was lofty and wide, like the free air. Who acts: cavern, Winds. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Garden of Paradise, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Garden of Paradise, sentence 157

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Sometimes it was so narrow that they had to creep on their hands and knees, while at other times it was lofty and wide, like the free air.

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**Who acts:** cavern, Winds · **What happens:** be, have, creep · **To what, where:** hands

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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 (cavern, Winds), 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:pg27200:140:157
# text = Sometimes it was so narrow that they had to creep on their hands and knees, while at other times it was lofty and wide, like the free air.
1	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	5	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	creep	creep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
17	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	lofty	lofty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	wide	wide	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	like	like	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	free	free	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | cavern |  |  |  |  | narrow, sometimes *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | Winds *= wind* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **creep** | to-infinitive | Winds *= wind* *not said here* |  |  | Winds's hands and knees |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on hand=Trajectory |
| 4 | **is** | past | cavern |  |  |  | time | like the free air; lofty *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** |  | cavern *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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