---
title: The whole world was to him like a clockmaker's great workshop, in wh… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The whole world was to him like a clockmaker's great workshop, in which all the clocks were going "tick, tick," and all the turret clocks striking "ding, dong." Who acts: whole world, clocks, turret clocks. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Philosopher's S
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, sentence 103

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The whole world was to him like a clockmaker's great workshop, in which all the clocks were going "tick, tick," and all the turret clocks striking "ding, dong."

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**Who acts:** whole world, clocks, turret clocks · **What happens:** be, go, strike · **To what, where:** tick, great workshop, ding

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (whole world, clocks, turret clocks), 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:pg27200:143:103
# text = The whole world was to him like a clockmaker's great workshop, in which all the clocks were going "tick, tick," and all the turret clocks striking "ding, dong."
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	like	like	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	clockmaker	clockmaker	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	's	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	workshop	workshop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	obl	_	_
16	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	18	det:predet	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	clocks	clock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	parataxis	_	_
21	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	tick	tick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	tick	tick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
28	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	31	det:predet	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	turret	turret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	clocks	clock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	_
32	striking	strike	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	31	acl	_	_
33	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	ding	ding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
36	dong	dong	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	34	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the whole world |  |  |  |  | like a clockmaker's great workshop and all turret clocks | tree rules |
| 2 | **go** | past · progressive | all clocks | tick and tick |  | a clockmaker's great workshop and all turret clocks |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in which=Location |
| 3 | **strike** | gerund | all turret clocks *not said here* | ding and dong |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ding=Patient |

<!-- .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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