---
title: How lofty the houses seemed, and what a number of people there were… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: How lofty the houses seemed, and what a number of people there were in the streets! some pushing this way, some that--a perfect maelstrom of citizens and peasants, monks and soldiers--the jingling of bells on the trappings of asses and mules, the chiming of church bells, calling, shouting, hammering
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 3, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
How lofty the houses seemed, and what a number of people there were in the streets! some pushing this way, some that--a perfect maelstrom of citizens and peasants, monks and soldiers--the jingling of bells on the trappings of asses and mules, the chiming of church bells, calling, shouting, hammering and knocking--all going on at once.

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**Who acts:** lofty houses, some · **What happens:** seem, push, chime, call, shout, hammer · **To what, where:** that, way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lofty houses, some), 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:pg27200:160:12
# text = How lofty the houses seemed, and what a number of people there were in the streets! some pushing this way, some that--a perfect maelstrom of citizens and peasants, monks and soldiers--the jingling of bells on the trappings of asses and mules, the chiming of church bells, calling, shouting, hammering and knocking--all going on at once.
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	lofty	lofty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	houses	house	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obl	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
13	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	14	expl	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	streets	street	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
19	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	nsubj	_	_
20	pushing	push	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	acl:relcl	_	_
21	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
22	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	appos	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	perfect	perfect	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	maelstrom	maelstrom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	parataxis	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	citizens	citizen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	peasants	peasant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	monks	monk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	conj	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	jingling	jingling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	bells	bell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nmod	_	_
43	on	on	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	trappings	trapping	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	nmod	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	asses	ass	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	nmod	_	_
48	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
49	mules	mule	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
51	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
52	chiming	chime	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	40	conj	_	_
53	of	of	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	compound	_	_
55	bells	bell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	52	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
57	calling	call	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	52	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	59	punct	_	_
59	shouting	shout	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	57	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	61	punct	_	_
61	hammering	hammer	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	57	conj	_	_
62	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	63	cc	_	_
63	knocking	knock	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	61	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	66	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	66	advmod	_	_
66	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	conj	_	_
67	on	on	ADP	RP	_	66	compound:prt	_	_
68	at	at	ADP	IN	_	69	case	_	_
69	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	66	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
70	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | the lofty houses | that |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **push** | gerund | some | this way |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Theme |
| 3 | **chime** | gerund | the lofty houses *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of church bells | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **call** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **shout** *speech: express* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **hammer** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn bump-18.4-1 «NP V together»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **knock** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |
| 8 | **go on** | gerund | the lofty houses *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at once=Location |

<!-- .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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