---
title: The sun had reached the edge of the sea, when the swans darted down… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The sun had reached the edge of the sea, when the swans darted down so swiftly, that Eliza's head trembled; she believed they were falling, but they again soared onward. Who acts: edge, head, swans. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2, wit
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2, sentence 29

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The sun had reached the edge of the sea, when the swans darted down so swiftly, that Eliza's head trembled; she believed they were falling, but they again soared onward.

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**Who acts:** edge, head, swans · **What happens:** reach, dart down, tremble, believe, fall, soar · **To what, where:** sun · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (edge, head, swans), 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:pg27200:209:29
# text = The sun had reached the edge of the sea, when the swans darted down so swiftly, that Eliza's head trembled; she believed they were falling, but they again soared onward.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	reached	reach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	swans	swan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
14	darted	dart	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
15	down	down	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	swiftly	swiftly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	Eliza	Eliza	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	's	's	PART	POS	_	20	case	_	_
22	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	trembled	tremble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	believed	believe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	again	again	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	soared	soar	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
35	onward	onward	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past · perfect · passive |  | the sun |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **dart down** | past | the edge of the sea |  |  |  |  | swiftly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **tremble** | past | Eliza's head |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **believe** | past | head |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **fall** | past · progressive | swans *= swan* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **soar** | past | swans *= swan* |  |  |  | again | onward *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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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