---
title: It seemed as if the air were singing and sounding, as if rays of lig… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It seemed as if the air were singing and sounding, as if rays of light were piercing through the leaves and the stalks of the Flower. Who acts: It, air, rays. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Snowdrop, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Snowdrop, sentence 25

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It seemed as if the air were singing and sounding, as if rays of light were piercing through the leaves and the stalks of the Flower.

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**Who acts:** It, air, rays · **What happens:** seem, sing, sound, pierce, ray · **To what, where:** light

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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 (It, air, rays), 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:pg27200:177:25
# text = It seemed as if the air were singing and sounding, as if rays of light were piercing through the leaves and the stalks of the Flower.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	sounding	sound	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
14	rays	ray	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	piercing	pierce	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
19	through	through	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	stalks	stalk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	conj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	Flower	flower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | It |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | past · progressive | the air |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **sound** | gerund | the air *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **pierce** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · progressive | rays of light |  |  |  |  | through the leaves and the stalks of the Flower | vn poke-19-1 «NP V NP PP.patient»: agent=Agent through leaf=Patient |
| 5 | **ray** |  |  | light |  |  |  |  | nom ray «phenomenon transitive»: of=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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