---
title: While he thus walked on his nose suddenly began to bleed; it was a t… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: While he thus walked on his nose suddenly began to bleed; it was a trifling occurrence, but trifles sometimes are of great importance. Who acts: sea, nose. 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 
---

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

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While he thus walked on his nose suddenly began to bleed; it was a trifling occurrence, but trifles sometimes are of great importance.

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**Who acts:** sea, nose · **What happens:** walk, begin, bleed, trifle, be · **To what, where:** trifles, nose, trifling occurrence

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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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sea, nose), 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:pg27200:161:4
# text = While he thus walked on his nose suddenly began to bleed; it was a trifling occurrence, but trifles sometimes are of great importance.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	bleed	bleed	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	trifling	trifle	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	amod	_	_
17	occurrence	occurrence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	trifles	trifle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
21	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	25	advmod	_	_
22	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	importance	importance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **walk** | past | sea | trifles |  | sea's nose |  | thus *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on nose=Trajectory |
| 2 | **begin** | past | sea's nose *not said here* |  |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **bleed** | to-infinitive | sea's nose *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Source |
| 4 | **trifle** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn trifle-105.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | past | nose | a trifling occurrence |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | of great importance; sometimes *property* | tree rules |

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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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