---
title: The road had always been heavy, but now it was almost unfit for use,… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The road had always been heavy, but now it was almost unfit for use, and when they at last arrived at the church, a great heap of sand lay piled up in front of them. Who acts: road. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 6, with it
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 6, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The road had always been heavy, but now it was almost unfit for use, and when they at last arrived at the church, a great heap of sand lay piled up in front of them.

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**Who acts:** road · **What happens:** be, arrive, pile up · **To what, where:** front

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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 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (road), 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:pg27200:163:20
# text = The road had always been heavy, but now it was almost unfit for use, and when they at last arrived at the church, a great heap of sand lay piled up in front of them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	6	advmod	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	cop	_	_
6	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	unfit	unfit	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
18	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	32	advmod	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
21	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
22	arrived	arrive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	amod	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	heap	heap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	_
32	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	piled	pile	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
34	up	up	ADP	RP	_	33	compound:prt	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past · perfect | the road |  |  |  |  | always, heavy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | road |  |  |  | now | for use; almost, unfit *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **arrive** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **pile up** | present · passive | the road *not said here* |  |  | front of storm |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V PP.destination»: in front=Destination |

<!-- .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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