---
title: The snow crackled, the sparrows hopped about in the wheel-ruts, and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The snow crackled, the sparrows hopped about in the wheel-ruts, and shivered, crying, "Tweet, tweet; when will spring come? Who acts: snow, sparrows. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of the Year, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Story of the Year, sentence 38

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The snow crackled, the sparrows hopped about in the wheel-ruts, and shivered, crying, "Tweet, tweet; when will spring come?

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**Who acts:** snow, sparrows · **What happens:** crackle, hop, shiver, cry, spring, come · **To what, where:** Tweet · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (snow, sparrows), 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:pg27200:214:38
# text = The snow crackled, the sparrows hopped about in the wheel-ruts, and shivered, crying, "Tweet, tweet; when will spring come?
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	crackled	crackle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	hopped	hop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	about	about	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	wheel	wheel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	ruts	rut	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	shivered	shiver	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	Tweet	Tweet	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	tweet	tweet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
25	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	advmod	_	_
26	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	spring	spring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
28	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **crackle** | past | the snow |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **hop** | past | the sparrows |  |  |  |  | about the wheel ruts | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about rut=Trajectory |
| 3 | **shiver** | participle | the snow *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn body\_internal\_states-40.6 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | gerund | the snow *not said here* | Tweet and tweet |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tweet=Topic |
| 5 | **spring** *in a quote* | future | the snow *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **come** *in a quote* | infinitive | the snow *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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