---
title: His rays tremble on the white wall, as if he wished to write down on… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: His rays tremble on the white wall, as if he wished to write down on it what he can tell, what he has seen there and elsewhere during thousands of years in our rolling world. Who acts: rays, he, His. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Psyche, with its depen
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Psyche, sentence 2

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His rays tremble on the white wall, as if he wished to write down on it what he can tell, what he has seen there and elsewhere during thousands of years in our rolling world.

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**Who acts:** rays, he, His · **What happens:** tremble, wish, write down, tell, see, roll · **To what, where:** white wall, wall, rolling world · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Psyche. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rays, he, His), 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:pg27200:151:2
# text = His rays tremble on the white wall, as if he wished to write down on it what he can tell, what he has seen there and elsewhere during thousands of years in our rolling world.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	rays	ray	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	tremble	tremble	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	down	down	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	21	obj	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	26	obj	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
27	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	elsewhere	elsewhere	ADV	RB	_	27	conj	_	_
30	during	during	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	thousands	thousand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nmod	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
36	rolling	roll	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	37	amod	_	_
37	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tremble** | present | His rays |  |  | the white wall |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on wall=Location |
| 2 | **wish** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | he |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **write down** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | he *not said here* |  |  | wall |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on it=Destination |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | can | he |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent what=Recipient |
| 5 | **see** | present · perfect | he |  |  | our rolling world; there | during thousands of years |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 6 | **roll** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **ray** |  | His *= he* |  |  |  |  |  | nom ray «phenomenon transitive»: poss=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.

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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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