---
title: I lay looking at the cloud till I observed a little black spot in th… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I lay looking at the cloud till I observed a little black spot in the middle of it, which gradually grew larger and larger, and then I knew what it meant--I am old and experienced; and although this token is not often seen, I knew it, and a shuddering seized me. Who acts: I, little black spot, spot,
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Snowdrop, sentence 176

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I lay looking at the cloud till I observed a little black spot in the middle of it, which gradually grew larger and larger, and then I knew what it meant--I am old and experienced; and although this token is not often seen, I knew it, and a shuddering seized me.

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**Who acts:** I, little black spot, spot, shuddering · **What happens:** lay, look, observe, grow, know, mean · **To what, where:** little black spot, middle, token, spot, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (I, little black spot, spot, shuddering), 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:pg27200:177:176
# text = I lay looking at the cloud till I observed a little black spot in the middle of it, which gradually grew larger and larger, and then I knew what it meant--I am old and experienced; and although this token is not often seen, I knew it, and a shuddering seized me.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	xcomp	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	cloud	cloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	observed	observe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	spot	spot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
21	gradually	gradually	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
23	larger	large	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	22	xcomp	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	larger	large	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	30	advmod	_	_
29	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
31	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	33	obj	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
36	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
37	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	experienced	experienced	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	51	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
42	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	48	mark	_	_
43	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	44	det	_	_
44	token	token	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nsubj:pass	_	_
45	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	48	aux:pass	_	_
46	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	48	advmod	_	_
47	often	often	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
48	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	51	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
50	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	51	nsubj	_	_
51	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
52	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	51	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
54	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	57	cc	_	_
55	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	shuddering	shuddering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	nsubj	_	_
57	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	51	conj	_	_
58	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	57	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lay** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **look** | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the cloud | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at cloud=Theme |
| 3 | **observe** | past | I | a little black spot |  | the middle of middle |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent spot=Topic |
| 4 | **grow** | past | a little black spot |  |  |  |  | gradually, large *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **know** | past | I |  |  |  | then |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **mean** | past | spot |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 7 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | old *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **be** |  | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **not** **see** | present · passive |  | this token |  |  |  | often *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus |
| 10 | **know** | past | I | spot |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |
| 11 | **seize** | past | a shuddering | me |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |

<!-- .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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