---
title: Some of the bricks, however, crumbled to pieces, or were broken, but… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Some of the bricks, however, crumbled to pieces, or were broken, but the elder brother found a use for even these. Who acts: bricks, elder brother. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Snowdrop, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Snowdrop, sentence 123

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Some of the bricks, however, crumbled to pieces, or were broken, but the elder brother found a use for even these.

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**Who acts:** bricks, elder brother · **What happens:** crumble, break, find · **To what, where:** use

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Snowdrop. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bricks, elder brother), 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:pg27200:177:123
# text = Some of the bricks, however, crumbled to pieces, or were broken, but the elder brother found a use for even these.
1	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	det	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	bricks	brick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	however	however	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	crumbled	crumble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	even	even	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **crumble** | participle | some bricks |  |  |  |  | to pieces *result*; however *property* | vn break-45.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Patient to piece=Result |
| 2 | **break** | past · passive | some bricks *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V» |
| 3 | **find** | past | the elder brother | a use |  |  |  | for these | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent use=Theme for this=Beneficiary |

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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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