---
title: He began to feel his strength decreasing, but he was only a few cabl… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He began to feel his strength decreasing, but he was only a few cable lengths' distance from the shore, and help was coming, for a boat was approaching him. Who acts: Jurgen, strength, help, boat. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 5, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He began to feel his strength decreasing, but he was only a few cable lengths' distance from the shore, and help was coming, for a boat was approaching him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Jurgen, strength, help, boat · **What happens:** begin, feel, decrease, be, come, approach · **To what, where:** strength, distance, shore, Jurgen

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Jurgen, strength, help, boat), 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:pg27200:162:54
# text = He began to feel his strength decreasing, but he was only a few cable lengths' distance from the shore, and help was coming, for a boat was approaching him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	feel	feel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	decreasing	decrease	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
12	only	only	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	cable	cable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	lengths	length	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	'	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
19	from	from	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
28	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	conj	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | Jurgen |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **feel** | to-infinitive | Jurgen *not said here* | Jurgen's strength |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent strength=Theme |
| 3 | **decrease** | gerund | Jurgen's strength *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn caused\_calibratable\_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **is a** | past | Jurgen | a few cable lengths's distance |  | the shore |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **come** | past · progressive | help |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **approach** | past · progressive | a boat | Jurgen |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

<!-- .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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