---
title: He heard the earth fall on the coffin-lid, and watched it till only… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He heard the earth fall on the coffin-lid, and watched it till only a corner remained in sight, and at last that also disappeared. Who acts: son, earth, that. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1, sentence 16

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He heard the earth fall on the coffin-lid, and watched it till only a corner remained in sight, and at last that also disappeared.

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**Who acts:** son, earth, that · **What happens:** hear, fall, watch, remain, disappear · **To what, where:** coffin lid, earth, corner, sight, last · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (son, earth, that), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg27200:196:16
# text = He heard the earth fall on the coffin-lid, and watched it till only a corner remained in sight, and at last that also disappeared.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	fall	fall	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	coffin	coffin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	lid	lid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	till	till	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	only	only	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
19	remained	remain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
26	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
27	also	also	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	disappeared	disappear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | son |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **fall** | present | the earth |  |  | the coffin lid |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on lid=Location |
| 3 | **watch** | past | son *not said here* | earth |  |  | till a corner |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **remain** | participle |  | a corner *not said here* |  | sight |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in sight=Location |
| 5 | **disappear** | past | that |  |  | last |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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