---
title: I was once engaged to a swallow; but I fell in here from the gutter… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I was once engaged to a swallow; but I fell in here from the gutter under the roof, and I have lain here more than five years, and have been thoroughly drenched. Who acts: I. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Top and Ball, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Top and Ball, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I was once engaged to a swallow; but I fell in here from the gutter under the roof, and I have lain here more than five years, and have been thoroughly drenched.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** engage, fall in, lie, drench · **To what, where:** I, gutter

<!-- .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 (I), 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:pg27200:195:42
# text = I was once engaged to a swallow; but I fell in here from the gutter under the roof, and I have lain here more than five years, and have been thoroughly drenched.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	advmod	_	_
4	engaged	engage	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	swallow	swallow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
12	in	in	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	_
14	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	gutter	gutter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
17	under	under	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	lain	lie	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
25	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
26	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp|ExtPos=ADV	28	advmod	_	_
27	than	than	ADP	IN	_	26	fixed	_	_
28	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
29	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
32	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
33	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	35	aux:pass	_	_
34	thoroughly	thoroughly	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	drenched	drench	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **engage** | past · passive |  | I |  |  |  | to a swallow; once *property* | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **fall in** | past | I |  |  | the gutter; here |  | under the roof | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme under roof=Location |
| 3 | **lie** | present · perfect | I |  |  | here | year |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **drench** | present · perfect · passive |  |  |  |  |  | thoroughly *property* | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP» |

<!-- .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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