---
title: But however quietly its white glassy surface rested, there was still… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But however quietly its white glassy surface rested, there was still a motion on the shore, as its waves rose and fell like the breast of a sleeping child. Who acts: motion, waves, sea. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 1, with its depende
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 1, sentence 84

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But however quietly its white glassy surface rested, there was still a motion on the shore, as its waves rose and fell like the breast of a sleeping child.

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**Who acts:** motion, waves, sea · **What happens:** rest, be, rise, fall, sleep, wave

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, 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 (motion, waves, sea), 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:pg27200:208:84
# text = But however quietly its white glassy surface rested, there was still a motion on the shore, as its waves rose and fell like the breast of a sleeping child.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	however	however	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	quietly	quietly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
4	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
5	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	glassy	glassy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	surface	surface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
8	rested	rest	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	11	expl	_	_
11	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
12	still	still	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	motion	motion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
22	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
25	like	like	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	breast	breast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	sleeping	sleep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	amod	_	_
31	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rest** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | quietly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** | past | a motion on the shore |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **rise** | past | sea's waves |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **fall** | past | sea's waves *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like the breast of a sleeping child | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **sleep** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **wave** |  | sea |  |  |  |  |  | nom wave «event transitive»: poss=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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