---
title: Then suddenly a little nail breaks, which had stopped the machine fo… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then suddenly a little nail breaks, which had stopped the machine for a few moments; and now the wheels turn again, the floats break the force of the waters, and the ship continues its course; and the beam of the steam engine shortens the distance between far lands from hours into minutes. Who acts:
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/190/72/)

<!-- 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 Thorny Road of Honor](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/190/) / 72

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Thorny Road of Honor, sentence 72

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then suddenly a little nail breaks, which had stopped the machine for a few moments; and now the wheels turn again, the floats break the force of the waters, and the ship continues its course; and the beam of the steam engine shortens the distance between far lands from hours into minutes.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little nail, wheels, floats, ship, beam · **What happens:** break, stop, turn, continue, shorten, beam · **To what, where:** machine, force, course, distance, steam engine

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Thorny Road of Honor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little nail, wheels, floats, ship), 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:pg27200:190:72
# text = Then suddenly a little nail breaks, which had stopped the machine for a few moments; and now the wheels turn again, the floats break the force of the waters, and the ship continues its course; and the beam of the steam engine shortens the distance between far lands from hours into minutes.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
2	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	nail	nail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	breaks	break	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	stopped	stop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	machine	machine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	moments	moment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	wheels	wheel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
22	turn	turn	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
23	again	again	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	floats	float	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
27	break	break	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	force	force	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
37	continues	continue	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
38	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	48	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	beam	beam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nsubj	_	_
44	of	of	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
46	steam	steam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	compound	_	_
47	engine	engine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nmod	_	_
48	shortens	shorten	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obj	_	_
51	between	between	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
52	far	far	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	_
53	lands	land	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	nmod	_	_
54	from	from	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
55	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	53	nmod	_	_
56	into	into	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
57	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break** | present | a little nail |  |  |  | then | suddenly *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **stop** | past · perfect |  | the machine |  |  | moment |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality machine=Eventuality |
| 3 | **turn** | present | the wheels |  |  |  | now; again |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **break** | present | the floats | the force of the waters |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer force=Patient |
| 5 | **continue** | present | the ship | ship's course |  |  |  |  | vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent course=Theme |
| 6 | **shorten** | present | the beam of the steam engine | the distance |  |  | minute | between far lands from hours | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent distance=Patient |
| 7 | **beam** |  |  | the steam engine |  |  |  |  | nom beam «communication 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.

<!-- 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 71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/190/71/)
- next →: [sentence 73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/190/73/)
- ↑ back to [The Thorny Road of Honor](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/190/)