---
title: Oh, how they tottered at first, and were obliged to balance themselv… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Oh, how they tottered at first, and were obliged to balance themselves with their wings, or they would have fallen to the ground below. Who acts: tops. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Storks, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Storks, sentence 41

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Oh, how they tottered at first, and were obliged to balance themselves with their wings, or they would have fallen to the ground below.

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**Who acts:** tops · **What happens:** totter, oblige, balance, fall · **To what, where:** tops

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Storks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tops), 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:pg27200:183:41
# text = Oh, how they tottered at first, and were obliged to balance themselves with their wings, or they would have fallen to the ground below.
1	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	tottered	totter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	balance	balance	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obj	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux	_	_
23	fallen	fall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	below	below	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **totter** | past | tops *= top* |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at first=Location |
| 2 | **oblige** | past · passive | tops *= top* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: clause=Result |
| 3 | **balance** | to-infinitive | tops *= top* *not said here* | tops *= top* |  |  |  | with tops's wings | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent themselves=Patient with wing=Instrument |
| 4 | **fall** | would · perfect | tops *= top* |  |  |  |  | to the ground; below *property* | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to ground=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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