---
title: As soon as the boat touched the shore, the men sprang on board, and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: As soon as the boat touched the shore, the men sprang on board, and before he was aware of it, they had bound his hands with a rope. Who acts: men, man. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 4, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As soon as the boat touched the shore, the men sprang on board, and before he was aware of it, they had bound his hands with a rope.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** men, man · **What happens:** touch, spring, be, bind · **To what, where:** shore, board, people

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, man), 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:pg27200:161:17
# text = As soon as the boat touched the shore, the men sprang on board, and before he was aware of it, they had bound his hands with a rope.
1	As	as	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
6	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	board	board	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
17	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	aware	aware	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	advcl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	bound	bind	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	rope	rope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **touch** | past |  | the shore |  |  |  | as the boat; soon *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme shore=Co-Theme |
| 2 | **spring** | past | the men |  |  | board |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on board=Trajectory |
| 3 | **is** | past | man |  |  |  |  | of boat; aware *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **bind** | past · perfect · passive |  | people |  |  |  | with a rope | tree rules |

<!-- .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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