--- title: Large swans were floating upon them, and I thought at first they wer… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics description: Large swans were floating upon them, and I thought at first they were only foam, they lay so still; but when I saw them walk and fly, I knew what they were directly. Who acts: Large swans, I, swans. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What the First Little Mouse --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/179/11/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [What the First Little Mouse Saw and He…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/179/) / 11 # Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, What the First Little Mouse Saw and Heard on Her Travels, sentence 11 Large swans were floating upon them, and I thought at first they were only foam, they lay so still; but when I saw them walk and fly, I knew what they were directly. **Who acts:** Large swans, I, swans · **What happens:** be, float, think, lay, see, walk · **To what, where:** foam · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What the First Little Mouse Saw and Heard on Her Travels. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Large swans, I, swans), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg27200:179:11 # text = Large swans were floating upon them, and I thought at first they were only foam, they lay so still; but when I saw them walk and fly, I knew what they were directly. 1 Large large ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 2 amod _ _ 2 swans swan NOUN NNS Number=Plur 3 nsubj _ _ 3 were be VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 floating float VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 3 xcomp _ _ 5 upon upon ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 6 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 7 , , PUNCT , _ 10 punct _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 10 cc _ _ 9 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 10 nsubj _ _ 10 thought think VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 11 at at ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 12 first first ADV RB NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord 16 obl _ _ 13 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 16 nsubj _ _ 14 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 16 cop _ _ 15 only only ADV RB _ 16 advmod _ _ 16 foam foam NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 ccomp _ SpaceAfter=No 17 , , PUNCT , _ 19 punct _ _ 18 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 19 nsubj _ _ 19 lay lay VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 16 parataxis _ _ 20 so so ADV RB _ 21 advmod _ _ 21 still still ADV RB _ 19 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 22 ; ; PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 23 but but CCONJ CC _ 33 cc _ _ 24 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 26 advmod _ _ 25 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 26 nsubj _ _ 26 saw see VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 33 advcl _ _ 27 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 28 nsubj _ _ 28 walk walk VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 26 xcomp _ _ 29 and and CCONJ CC _ 30 cc _ _ 30 fly fly VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 28 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 31 , , PUNCT , _ 26 punct _ _ 32 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 33 nsubj _ _ 33 knew know VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 parataxis _ _ 34 what what PRON WP PronType=Int 37 nsubj _ _ 35 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 37 nsubj _ _ 36 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 37 cop _ _ 37 directly directly ADV RB _ 33 ccomp _ SpaceAfter=No 38 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **be** | past | Large swans | | | | | | tree rules | | 2 | **float** | gerund | Large swans *not said here* | | | | | upon swans *= swan* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon they=Trajectory | | 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | I | | | | | | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **is a** | past | swans *= swan* | foam | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **lay** | present | swans *= swan* | | | | still | | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **see** | past | I | | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | | 7 | **walk** | infinitive | swans *= swan* | | | | | | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 8 | **fly** | infinitive | swans *= swan* *not said here* | | | | | | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 9 | **know** | past | I | | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | | 10 | **is** | past | | | | | | directly *property* | tree rules | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/179/10/) - next →: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/179/12/) - ↑ back to [What the First Little Mouse Saw and Heard on Her Travels](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/179/)