---
title: The snail certainly took half a year to get over the threshold of th… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The snail certainly took half a year to get over the threshold of the door; but he injured himself, and broke his collar-bone by the haste he made. Who acts: snail. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Races, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Races, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The snail certainly took half a year to get over the threshold of the door; but he injured himself, and broke his collar-bone by the haste he made.

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**Who acts:** snail · **What happens:** take, get, injure, break, make · **To what, where:** threshold, snail, collar bone, haste

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Races. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (snail), 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:pg27200:153:6
# text = The snail certainly took half a year to get over the threshold of the door; but he injured himself, and broke his collar-bone by the haste he made.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	snail	snail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	half	half	DET	PDT	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac|PronType=Ind	7	det:predet	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
10	over	over	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	threshold	threshold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	injured	injure	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
20	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
25	collar	collar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	bone	bone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
28	by	by	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	haste	haste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the snail |  |  |  | year | certainly *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **get** | to-infinitive | the snail *not said here* |  |  | the threshold of the door |  |  | vn escape-51.1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme over threshold=Destination |
| 3 | **injure** | past | snail | snail |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **break** | past | snail *not said here* | snail's collar bone |  |  |  | by the haste | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bone=Patient |
| 5 | **make** | past | snail | the haste *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent haste=Product |

<!-- .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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