---
title: He was too close to it to stop, so the boat rushed on, and the poor… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He was too close to it to stop, so the boat rushed on, and the poor tin soldier could only hold himself as stiffly as possible, without moving an eyelid, to show that he was not afraid. Who acts: arch, boat, poor tin soldier. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Brave Tin Soldier, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was too close to it to stop, so the boat rushed on, and the poor tin soldier could only hold himself as stiffly as possible, without moving an eyelid, to show that he was not afraid.

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**Who acts:** arch, boat, poor tin soldier · **What happens:** be, stop, rush on, hold, move, show · **To what, where:** drain, arch, eyelid

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Brave Tin Soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (arch, boat, poor tin soldier), 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:pg27200:192:52
# text = He was too close to it to stop, so the boat rushed on, and the poor tin soldier could only hold himself as stiffly as possible, without moving an eyelid, to show that he was not afraid.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|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	too	too	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	rushed	rush	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	tin	tin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	only	only	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
24	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	23	obj	_	_
25	as	as	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	stiffly	stiffly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
27	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
28	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
31	moving	move	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
32	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	eyelid	eyelid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
37	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
38	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
39	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	cop	_	_
40	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	41	advmod	_	_
41	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | arch |  | drain |  |  | close *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **stop** | to-infinitive | arch *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **rush on** | participle | the boat |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **hold** | could | the poor tin soldier | arch |  |  |  | stiffly *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 5 | **move** | gerund | the poor tin soldier *not said here* | a eyelid |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent eyelid=Theme |
| 6 | **show** | to-infinitive | the poor tin soldier *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **not** **is** | past | arch |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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