---
title: We have often seen, when a sunbeam burst through a crack in the door… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: We have often seen, when a sunbeam burst through a crack in the door into a dusty room, how a whirling column of dust seems to circle round. Who acts: We, sunbeam, whirling column. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, with its dependency 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, sentence 245

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We have often seen, when a sunbeam burst through a crack in the door into a dusty room, how a whirling column of dust seems to circle round.

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**Who acts:** We, sunbeam, whirling column · **What happens:** see, burst, whirl, seem, circle · **To what, where:** crack

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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 (We, sunbeam, whirling column), 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:pg27200:143:245
# text = We have often seen, when a sunbeam burst through a crack in the door into a dusty room, how a whirling column of dust seems to circle round.
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	often	often	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	9	mark	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	sunbeam	sunbeam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	burst	burst	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
10	through	through	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	crack	crack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
16	into	into	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	dusty	dusty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
21	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	advmod	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	whirling	whirl	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	amod	_	_
24	column	column	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
27	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	circle	circle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	round	round	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | present · perfect | We |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **burst** | past | a sunbeam |  |  | a crack |  | in the door; into a dusty room | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through crack=Location |
| 3 | **whirl** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **seem** | present | a whirling column of dust |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 5 | **circle** | to-infinitive | a whirling column of dust *not said here* |  |  |  |  | round *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |

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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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