---
title: They sunk so rapidly, that at the moment their feet touched the rock… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They sunk so rapidly, that at the moment their feet touched the rock, it shone only like a star, and at last disappeared like the last spark in a piece of burnt paper. Who acts: swans, that, rock. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2, with 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They sunk so rapidly, that at the moment their feet touched the rock, it shone only like a star, and at last disappeared like the last spark in a piece of burnt paper.

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**Who acts:** swans, that, rock · **What happens:** sink, touch, shine, disappear · **To what, where:** rock, star, last

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

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:209:32
# text = They sunk so rapidly, that at the moment their feet touched the rock, it shone only like a star, and at last disappeared like the last spark in a piece of burnt paper.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sunk	sink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	rapidly	rapidly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	nsubj	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	shone	shine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
18	only	only	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
19	like	like	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	star	star	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	obl	_	_
26	disappeared	disappear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
27	like	like	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	spark	spark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	burnt	burnt	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sink** | past | swans *= swan* |  |  |  |  | rapidly *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **touch** | past | that | the rock |  |  | moment |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme rock=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **shine** | past | rock | a star |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent star=Theme |
| 4 | **disappear** | participle | swans *= swan* *not said here* |  |  | last |  | like the last spark in a piece of burnt paper | 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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