---
title: They were only a few oars' strokes from the reef, and Jurgen sprang… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They were only a few oars' strokes from the reef, and Jurgen sprang from his seat and stood up in the bow. Who acts: boats, Jurgen. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 3, sentence 78

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They were only a few oars' strokes from the reef, and Jurgen sprang from his seat and stood up in the bow.

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**Who acts:** boats, Jurgen · **What happens:** be, spring, stand up · **To what, where:** strokes, reef, seat, bow

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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 (boats, Jurgen), 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:pg27200:160:78
# text = They were only a few oars' strokes from the reef, and Jurgen sprang from his seat and stood up in the bow.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	oars	oar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	'	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	strokes	stroke	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	reef	reef	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	Jurgen	Jurgen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	seat	seat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
21	up	up	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	bow	bow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | boats *= boat* | a few oars's strokes |  | the reef |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **spring** | past | Jurgen |  |  | Jurgen's seat |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from seat=Trajectory |
| 3 | **stand up** | past | Jurgen *not said here* |  |  | the bow |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in bow=Location |

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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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