---
title: He was like an instrument in which the strings are loose and will gi… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He was like an instrument in which the strings are loose and will give no sound; only occasionally they regained their power for a few minutes, and then they sounded as they used to do. Who acts: Jurgen, strings. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 5, sentence 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was like an instrument in which the strings are loose and will give no sound; only occasionally they regained their power for a few minutes, and then they sounded as they used to do.

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**Who acts:** Jurgen, strings · **What happens:** be, give, regain, sound, use, do · **To what, where:** instrument, sound, power

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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 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, strings), 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:pg27200:162:71
# text = He was like an instrument in which the strings are loose and will give no sound; only occasionally they regained their power for a few minutes, and then they sounded as they used to do.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	like	like	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	instrument	instrument	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	obl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	strings	string	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
10	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	loose	loose	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
15	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	16	det	_	_
16	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
18	only	only	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	occasionally	occasionally	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	regained	regain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
22	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	32	advmod	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	sounded	sound	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
33	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
34	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	advcl	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Jurgen |  |  |  |  | like a instrument | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | the strings |  |  | a instrument |  | loose *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **give** | future | the strings *not said here* | no sound |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sound=Theme |
| 4 | **regain** | past | strings *= string* | strings's power |  |  | minute | occasionally *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent power=Theme |
| 5 | **sound** | past | strings *= string* |  |  |  | then |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 6 | **use** | past | strings *= string* |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 7 | **do** | to-infinitive | strings *= string* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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