---
title: Evening came; there was a swelling roar in the air, a wailing or moa… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Evening came; there was a swelling roar in the air, a wailing or moaning like the voices of despairing spirits, that sounded above the thunder of the waves. Who acts: Evening, swelling roar, despairing spirits, waves. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 1, sentence 87

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Evening came; there was a swelling roar in the air, a wailing or moaning like the voices of despairing spirits, that sounded above the thunder of the waves.

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**Who acts:** Evening, swelling roar, despairing spirits, waves · **What happens:** come, be, moan, despair, sound, thunder · **To what, where:** thunder

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Evening, swelling roar, despairing spirits, waves), 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:pg27200:158:87
# text = Evening came; there was a swelling roar in the air, a wailing or moaning like the voices of despairing spirits, that sounded above the thunder of the waves.
1	Evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	5	expl	_	_
5	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	swelling	swelling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	roar	roar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	wailing	wailing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
15	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	moaning	moan	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	conj	_	_
17	like	like	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	voices	voice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	despairing	despair	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	amod	_	_
22	spirits	spirit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
25	sounded	sound	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
26	above	above	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	thunder	thunder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | Evening |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **be** | past | a swelling roar in the air and a wailing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **moan** | gerund | a swelling roar in the air and a wailing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like the voices of despairing spirits | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **despair** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **sound** | past | despairing spirits |  |  | the thunder of the waves |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme above thunder=Location |
| 6 | **thunder** |  | the waves |  |  |  |  |  | nom thunder «event intransitive»: of=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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