---
title: But the mountains were not so near as they appeared; they had to tra… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But the mountains were not so near as they appeared; they had to travel a whole day before they reached them, and pass through black forests and piles of rock as large as a town. Who acts: mountains. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1, sentence 102

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the mountains were not so near as they appeared; they had to travel a whole day before they reached them, and pass through black forests and piles of rock as large as a town.

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**Who acts:** mountains · **What happens:** not be, appear, have, travel, reach, pass · **To what, where:** clouds, black forests

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mountains), 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:pg27200:196:102
# text = But the mountains were not so near as they appeared; they had to travel a whole day before they reached them, and pass through black forests and piles of rock as large as a town.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	mountains	mountain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	near	near	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	travel	travel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl:unmarked	_	_
19	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	pass	pass	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
26	through	through	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	forests	forest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	piles	pile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	conj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
33	as	as	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	advcl	_	_
35	as	as	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | near *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **appear** | past | mountains *= mountain* |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **have** | past | mountains *= mountain* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **travel** | to-infinitive | mountains *= mountain* *not said here* |  |  |  | day |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **reach** | past | mountains *= mountain* | clouds *= cloud* |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 6 | **pass** | present | mountains *= mountain* *not said here* |  |  | black forests of rock and piles |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme through forest=Location |

<!-- .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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