---
title: It was a wonderful performance and a difficult piece, and yet the bo… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It was a wonderful performance and a difficult piece, and yet the bow seemed to glide across the strings so easily that it was as if any one could do it who tried. Who acts: sound, bow. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Pen and the Inkstand, with its depen
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Pen and the Inkstand, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was a wonderful performance and a difficult piece, and yet the bow seemed to glide across the strings so easily that it was as if any one could do it who tried.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sound, bow · **What happens:** be, seem, glide, try · **To what, where:** wonderful performance, strings

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Pen and the Inkstand. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sound, bow), 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:pg27200:142:28
# text = It was a wonderful performance and a difficult piece, and yet the bow seemed to glide across the strings so easily that it was as if any one could do it who tried.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	performance	performance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	bow	bow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	glide	glide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	across	across	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	strings	string	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
27	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
28	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	29	det	_	_
29	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
30	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	34	nsubj	_	_
34	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | sound | a wonderful performance and a difficult piece |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **seem** | past | the bow | a wonderful performance and a difficult piece *not said here* |  |  | yet |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **glide** | to-infinitive | the bow *not said here* |  |  | the strings |  | easily *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme across string=Trajectory |
| 4 | **is** | could · past | sound |  |  |  |  | do *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **try** | past | sound |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP-PRO-ARB»: agent=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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