---
title: Then came the thought, as if from heaven, that I would rather set fi… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then came the thought, as if from heaven, that I would rather set fire to my bed, and let the house be burnt down, than that so many people should perish miserably. Who acts: thought, I, house, that. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Snowdrop, with its dep
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Snowdrop, sentence 187

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then came the thought, as if from heaven, that I would rather set fire to my bed, and let the house be burnt down, than that so many people should perish miserably.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** thought, I, house, that · **What happens:** come, set, let, burnt down, perish · **To what, where:** fire, house

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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 (thought, I, house, that), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:177:187
# text = Then came the thought, as if from heaven, that I would rather set fire to my bed, and let the house be burnt down, than that so many people should perish miserably.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	as	as	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	heaven	heaven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
16	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	burnt	burnt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	xcomp	_	_
27	down	down	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
29	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
30	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	35	nsubj:outer	_	_
31	so	so	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
32	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nsubj	_	_
34	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	perish	perish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
36	miserably	miserably	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the thought |  |  |  | then |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **set** | would | I | fire |  |  |  | to my bed | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient fire=Result |
| 3 | **let** | infinitive | the thought *not said here* | the house |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **burnt down** | infinitive · passive | the house *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **perish** | should | that |  |  |  |  | miserably *property* | vn break\_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=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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