---
title: The top still twirled about and hummed, but he continued to think of… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The top still twirled about and hummed, but he continued to think of the ball; and the more he thought of her, the more beautiful she seemed to his fancy. Who acts: top, boy, bird. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Top and Ball, with its dependency tree an
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Top and Ball, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The top still twirled about and hummed, but he continued to think of the ball; and the more he thought of her, the more beautiful she seemed to his fancy.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** top, boy, bird · **What happens:** twirl, hum, continue, think, seem, fancy · **To what, where:** top · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Top and Ball. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (top, boy, bird), 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:pg27200:195:28
# text = The top still twirled about and hummed, but he continued to think of the ball; and the more he thought of her, the more beautiful she seemed to his fancy.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	still	still	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	twirled	twirl	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
5	about	about	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	hummed	hum	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	continued	continue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	22	advmod	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	28	advmod	_	_
28	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	conj	_	_
29	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	ccomp	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	fancy	fancy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **twirl** | participle |  | the top *not said here* |  |  | still |  | vn coil-9.6-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **hum** | past | the top |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn bulge-47.5.3 «NP V»: agent=Location |
| 3 | **continue** | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn continue-55.3 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of the ball | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | past | boy |  |  |  |  | of bird | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **seem** | past | bird |  |  |  |  | to boy's fancy | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **fancy** |  | boy |  |  |  |  |  | nom fancy «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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