---
title: I heard him sighing like a soul in despair; I heard him praying, and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I heard him sighing like a soul in despair; I heard him praying, and I noticed how he held his breath. Who acts: I, master. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of the Wind, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/212/128/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Story of the Wind](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/212/) / 128

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Story of the Wind, sentence 128

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I heard him sighing like a soul in despair; I heard him praying, and I noticed how he held his breath.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, master · **What happens:** hear, sigh, pray, notice, hold · **To what, where:** master, breath · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of the Wind. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, master), 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:pg27200:212:128
# text = I heard him sighing like a soul in despair; I heard him praying, and I noticed how he held his breath.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	sighing	sigh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	xcomp	_	_
5	like	like	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	soul	soul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	praying	pray	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	noticed	notice	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
19	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	ccomp	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | I | master |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **sigh** | gerund | master *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like a soul; in despair | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in despair=Theme |
| 3 | **hear** | past | I | master |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **pray** | gerund | master *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 5 | **notice** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **hold** | past | master | master's breath |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent breath=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 127](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/212/127/)
- next →: [sentence 129](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/212/129/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of the Wind](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/212/)