---
title: He would sing snatches of songs or old melodies, pictures of the pas… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He would sing snatches of songs or old melodies, pictures of the past would rise before him, and then disappear in the mist, as it were, but as a general rule he sat staring into vacancy, without a thought. Who acts: Jurgen, snatches, mist. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 5, sentence 72

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He would sing snatches of songs or old melodies, pictures of the past would rise before him, and then disappear in the mist, as it were, but as a general rule he sat staring into vacancy, without a thought.

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**Who acts:** Jurgen, snatches, mist · **What happens:** sing, rise, disappear, be, sit, stare · **To what, where:** mist, songs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, snatches, mist), 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:pg27200:162:72
# text = He would sing snatches of songs or old melodies, pictures of the past would rise before him, and then disappear in the mist, as it were, but as a general rule he sat staring into vacancy, without a thought.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	snatches	snatch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	songs	song	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
7	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	melodies	melody	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	pictures	picture	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	past	past	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	rise	rise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
17	before	before	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	_
22	disappear	disappear	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	mist	mist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
31	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
32	as	as	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	general	general	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	rule	rule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
38	staring	stare	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	37	advcl	_	_
39	into	into	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	vacancy	vacancy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
42	without	without	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sing** *speech: express* | would | Jurgen |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **rise** | would | snatches of songs or old melodies and pictures of the past |  |  |  | before Jurgen |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before he=Location |
| 3 | **disappear** | present |  |  |  | the mist | then |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **be** | past | mist |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **sit** | past | Jurgen |  |  |  |  | as a general rule | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **stare** | gerund | Jurgen *not said here* |  |  |  |  | without a thought; into vacancy | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent into vacancy=Theme |
| 7 | **snatch** |  |  | songs or old melodies and pictures of the past |  |  |  |  | nom snatch «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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