---
title: Some years ago, large ships were sent towards the north pole, to exp… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Some years ago, large ships were sent towards the north pole, to explore the distant coasts, and to try how far men could penetrate into those unknown regions. Who acts: far men. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, In the Uttermost Parts of the Sea, with its dep
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, In the Uttermost Parts of the Sea, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Some years ago, large ships were sent towards the north pole, to explore the distant coasts, and to try how far men could penetrate into those unknown regions.

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**Who acts:** far men · **What happens:** send, explore, try, penetrate · **To what, where:** large ships, distant coasts, unknown regions

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, In the Uttermost Parts of the Sea. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (far men), 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:pg27200:205:1
# text = Some years ago, large ships were sent towards the north pole, to explore the distant coasts, and to try how far men could penetrate into those unknown regions.
1	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	2	det	_	_
2	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	sent	send	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	north	north	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	pole	pole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	explore	explore	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	distant	distant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	coasts	coast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
23	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
24	far	far	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
26	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	penetrate	penetrate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	ccomp	_	_
28	into	into	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	31	det	_	_
30	unknown	unknown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	regions	region	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past · passive |  | large ships |  |  |  | towards the north pole; ago *property* | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **explore** | to-infinitive |  | the distant coasts |  |  |  |  | vn investigate-35.4 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent coast=Location |
| 3 | **try** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **penetrate** | could | far men |  |  | that unknown regions |  |  | vn poke-19 «NP V NP»: agent=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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