---
title: The sun was high in the heavens when they seated themselves under a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The sun was high in the heavens when they seated themselves under a large tree to eat their breakfast, and at the same moment an old woman came towards them. Who acts: sun, Strangers, old woman. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1, sentence 86

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The sun was high in the heavens when they seated themselves under a large tree to eat their breakfast, and at the same moment an old woman came towards them.

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**Who acts:** sun, Strangers, old woman · **What happens:** be, seat, eat, come · **To what, where:** heavens, Strangers, large tree, breakfast

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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 (sun, Strangers, old woman), 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:pg27200:196:86
# text = The sun was high in the heavens when they seated themselves under a large tree to eat their breakfast, and at the same moment an old woman came towards them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	heavens	heaven	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	seated	seat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
11	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obj	_	_
12	under	under	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	breakfast	breakfast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
26	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
29	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
30	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the sun |  |  | the heavens |  | high *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **seat** | past | Strangers *= stranger* | Strangers *= stranger* |  | a large tree |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP.location V NP»: agent=Location themselves=Value |
| 3 | **eat** | to-infinitive | Strangers *= stranger* *not said here* | Strangers's breakfast |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent breakfast=Patient |
| 4 | **come** | past | a old woman |  |  |  | moment | towards Strangers *= stranger* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme towards they=Initial\_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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