---
title: It was rather ruinous certainly, and the road to it was heavy, throu… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It was rather ruinous certainly, and the road to it was heavy, through deep sand, but the people gladly surmounted these difficulties to get to the house of God, to sing psalms and to hear the sermon. Who acts: church, road, people. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. And
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 4, sentence 98

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It was rather ruinous certainly, and the road to it was heavy, through deep sand, but the people gladly surmounted these difficulties to get to the house of God, to sing psalms and to hear the sermon.

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**Who acts:** church, road, people · **What happens:** be, surmount, get, sing, hear · **To what, where:** difficulties, psalms, sermon

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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 (church, road, people), 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:pg27200:161:98
# text = It was rather ruinous certainly, and the road to it was heavy, through deep sand, but the people gladly surmounted these difficulties to get to the house of God, to sing psalms and to hear the sermon.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	ruinous	ruinous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	through	through	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
22	gladly	gladly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	surmounted	surmount	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
24	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	25	det	_	_
25	difficulties	difficulty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	_
36	psalms	psalm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obj	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	conj	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	sermon	sermon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | church |  |  |  |  | certainly, ruinous *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the road to church |  |  |  |  | heavy *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **surmount** | past | the people | this difficulties |  |  |  | gladly *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme difficulty=Co-Theme |
| 4 | **get** | to-infinitive | the people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the house of God *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to house=Result |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | to-infinitive | the people *not said here* | psalms |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location psalm=Theme |
| 6 | **hear** | to-infinitive | the people *not said here* | the sermon |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sermon=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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