---
title: In the corner of the room the old clock began to strike; "whirr" wen… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: In the corner of the room the old clock began to strike; "whirr" went the chains, the heavy weight sank to the ground, and the clock stopped; and the poor mother rushed out of the house calling for her child. Who acts: old clock, whirr, heavy weight, clock. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christi
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Story of a Mother, sentence 13

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In the corner of the room the old clock began to strike; "whirr" went the chains, the heavy weight sank to the ground, and the clock stopped; and the poor mother rushed out of the house calling for her child.

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**Who acts:** old clock, whirr, heavy weight, clock, poor mother · **What happens:** begin, strike, go, sink, stop, rush out · **To what, where:** corner, chains, house · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of a Mother. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old clock, whirr, heavy weight, clock), 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:pg27200:185:13
# text = In the corner of the room the old clock began to strike; "whirr" went the chains, the heavy weight sank to the ground, and the clock stopped; and the poor mother rushed out of the house calling for her child.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	clock	clock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	strike	strike	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	whirr	whirr	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
17	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	chains	chain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	weight	weight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	sank	sink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	parataxis	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	clock	clock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
32	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	_
38	rushed	rush	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
39	out	out	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
43	calling	call	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	38	advcl	_	_
44	for	for	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	46	nmod:poss	_	_
46	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the old clock |  |  | the corner of the room |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **strike** | to-infinitive | the old clock *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **go** | past | whirr | the chains |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location chain=Theme |
| 4 | **sink** | past | the heavy weight |  |  |  |  | to the ground | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **stop** | past | the clock |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 6 | **rush out** | past | the poor mother | the house |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme house=Trajectory |
| 7 | **call** | gerund | the poor mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for mother's child | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient S\_INF»: agent=Agent for child=Recipient |

<!-- .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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