---
title: During the long evenings she had spun constantly, and round the dist… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: During the long evenings she had spun constantly, and round the distaff were woven threads finer than the web of a spider; human eyes could never have distinguished these threads when separated from each other. Who acts: page. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen,
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, sentence 188

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During the long evenings she had spun constantly, and round the distaff were woven threads finer than the web of a spider; human eyes could never have distinguished these threads when separated from each other.

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**Who acts:** page · **What happens:** spin, weave, not distinguish, separate · **To what, where:** distaff, human eyes

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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 (page), 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:pg27200:143:188
# text = During the long evenings she had spun constantly, and round the distaff were woven threads finer than the web of a spider; human eyes could never have distinguished these threads when separated from each other.
1	During	during	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	evenings	evening	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	spun	spin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	constantly	constantly	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	round	round	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	distaff	distaff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	woven	weave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
16	threads	thread	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	finer	fine	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	xcomp	_	_
18	than	than	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	web	web	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	spider	spider	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
25	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj:pass	_	_
27	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
28	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
29	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	aux	_	_
30	distinguished	distinguish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
31	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	32	det	_	_
32	threads	thread	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	_
33	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
34	separated	separate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	advcl	_	_
35	from	from	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	34	obl	_	_
37	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spin** | past · perfect | page |  |  |  | evening | constantly *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **weave** | past · passive | page *not said here* |  |  | the distaff |  | fine *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: round distaff=Trajectory |
| 3 | **not** **distinguish** | could · perfect · passive |  | human eyes |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **separate** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | from each | vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle PP»: agent=Patient from each=Co-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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