---
title: They thrust their spears into the terrible snow-flakes, so that they… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They thrust their spears into the terrible snow-flakes, so that they shivered into a hundred pieces, and little Gerda could go forward with courage and safety. Who acts: shapes, little Gerda. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Lapland Woman and the Finland 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Lapland Woman and the Finland Woman, sentence 42

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They thrust their spears into the terrible snow-flakes, so that they shivered into a hundred pieces, and little Gerda could go forward with courage and safety.

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**Who acts:** shapes, little Gerda · **What happens:** thrust, shiver, go · **To what, where:** spears, terrible snow flakes, hundred pieces

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Lapland Woman and the Finland Woman. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shapes, little Gerda), 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:pg27200:175:42
# text = They thrust their spears into the terrible snow-flakes, so that they shivered into a hundred pieces, and little Gerda could go forward with courage and safety.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thrust	thrust	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	spears	spear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	into	into	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
7	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
8	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	flakes	flake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	15	mark	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	fixed	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	shivered	shiver	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
16	into	into	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	_
19	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	Gerda	Gerda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
26	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	courage	courage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	safety	safety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **thrust** | past | shapes *= shape* | shapes's spears |  | the terrible snow flakes |  |  | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spear=Theme |
| 2 | **shiver** | past | shapes *= shape* |  |  | a hundred pieces |  |  | vn body\_internal\_states-40.6 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **go** | could | little Gerda |  |  |  |  | with courage and safety; forward *property* | vn help-72.1-2 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent with courage=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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