---
title: It was near the end of January, and a terrible fall of snow was pelt… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It was near the end of January, and a terrible fall of snow was pelting down, and whirling through the streets and lanes; the windows were plastered with snow on the outside, snow fell in masses from the roofs. Who acts: It, terrible fall, snow. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen»
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Story of the Year, sentence 1

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It was near the end of January, and a terrible fall of snow was pelting down, and whirling through the streets and lanes; the windows were plastered with snow on the outside, snow fell in masses from the roofs.

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**Who acts:** It, terrible fall, snow · **What happens:** be, pelt down, whirl, plaster, fall · **To what, where:** end, streets, windows, masses

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of the Year. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, terrible fall, snow), 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:pg27200:214:1
# text = It was near the end of January, and a terrible fall of snow was pelting down, and whirling through the streets and lanes; the windows were plastered with snow on the outside, snow fell in masses from the roofs.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	near	near	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	January	January	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	fall	fall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	pelting	pelt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	appos	_	_
17	down	down	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	whirling	whirl	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	conj	_	_
21	through	through	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	streets	street	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	lanes	lane	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	windows	window	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	_
29	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	plastered	plaster	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	_
31	with	with	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
33	on	on	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	outside	outside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
37	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	_
38	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	conj	_	_
39	in	in	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	masses	mass	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obl	_	_
41	from	from	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	roofs	roof	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | It |  |  |  | near the end; january |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pelt down** | past · progressive | a terrible fall of snow |  |  |  |  |  | vn weather-57 «It V PP.theme» |
| 3 | **whirl** | gerund | a terrible fall of snow *not said here* |  |  | the streets and lanes |  |  | vn coil-9.6 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through street=Destination |
| 4 | **plaster** | past · passive |  | the windows |  |  |  | with snow; on the outside | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP PP.co-patient PP.instrument»: subject=Patient with snow=Instrument on outside=Co-Patient |
| 5 | **fall** | past | snow |  |  | masses |  | from the roofs | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in mass=Location |

<!-- .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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