---
title: Then he bent down over the Book of Truth, and gazed on the page on w… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he bent down over the Book of Truth, and gazed on the page on which he should have read of the life after death, but for him there was nothing to be read or learned upon it. Who acts: father. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, with
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/143/179/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Philosopher's Stone](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/143/) / 179

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, sentence 179

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then he bent down over the Book of Truth, and gazed on the page on which he should have read of the life after death, but for him there was nothing to be read or learned upon it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** father · **What happens:** bend down, gaze, read, be, learn · **To what, where:** Book, page, nothing

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (father), 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:pg27200:143:179
# text = Then he bent down over the Book of Truth, and gazed on the page on which he should have read of the life after death, but for him there was nothing to be read or learned upon it.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	bent	bend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	over	over	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Book	Book	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	Truth	Truth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	gazed	gaze	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	page	page	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	obl	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux	_	_
21	read	read	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	acl:relcl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	after	after	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
28	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
29	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	32	expl	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	parataxis	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
35	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	aux:pass	_	_
36	read	read	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	acl	_	_
37	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
38	learned	learn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	36	conj	_	_
39	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bend down** | past | father |  |  | the Book of Truth | then | down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over book=Location |
| 2 | **gaze** | participle | father *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on the page | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on page=Theme |
| 3 | **read** | should · perfect | father |  |  | the page | after death | of the life | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent of life=Topic |
| 4 | **is a** | past |  | nothing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **read** | to-infinitive · passive | father *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V» |
| 6 | **learn** | participle | father *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon life | vn learn-14-1 «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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 178](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/143/178/)
- next →: [sentence 180](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/143/180/)
- ↑ back to [The Philosopher's Stone](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/143/)