---
title: It was quite pale, and its little eyes were closed, and sometimes it… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It was quite pale, and its little eyes were closed, and sometimes it drew a heavy deep breath, almost like a sigh; and then the mother gazed more sadly than ever on the poor little creature. Who acts: child, mother. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Story 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/185/2/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / [The Story of a Mother](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/185/) / 2

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Story of a Mother, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was quite pale, and its little eyes were closed, and sometimes it drew a heavy deep breath, almost like a sigh; and then the mother gazed more sadly than ever on the poor little creature.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** child, mother · **What happens:** be, close, draw, gaze · **To what, where:** little eyes, heavy deep breath

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (child, mother), 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:pg27200:185:2
# text = It was quite pale, and its little eyes were closed, and sometimes it drew a heavy deep breath, almost like a sigh; and then the mother gazed more sadly than ever on the poor little creature.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	pale	pale	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
7	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	closed	close	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	16	advmod	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
23	like	like	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	sigh	sigh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
28	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	31	advmod	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	gazed	gaze	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
32	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	33	advmod	_	_
33	sadly	sadly	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
34	than	than	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	33	obl	_	_
36	on	on	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
38	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
39	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | child |  |  |  |  | pale *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **close** | past · passive |  | child's little eyes |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **draw** | past | child | a heavy deep breath and a sigh |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent breath=Theme |
| 4 | **gaze** | past | the mother |  |  |  | then | on the poor little creature; sadly *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on creature=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/185/1/)
- next →: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/185/3/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of a Mother](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/185/)