---
title: It might have been the echo which people heard, or perhaps the words… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It might have been the echo which people heard, or perhaps the words of that wonderful old man, who sat high on a heap of snow, regardless of wind or weather. Who acts: hill, people, wonderful old man. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of the Year, w
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Story of the Year, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It might have been the echo which people heard, or perhaps the words of that wonderful old man, who sat high on a heap of snow, regardless of wind or weather.

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**Who acts:** hill, people, wonderful old man · **What happens:** be, hear, sit, word · **To what, where:** echo, heap, wonderful old man

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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 (hill, people, wonderful old man), 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:pg27200:214:41
# text = It might have been the echo which people heard, or perhaps the words of that wonderful old man, who sat high on a heap of snow, regardless of wind or weather.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	aux	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	echo	echo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	obj	_	_
8	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	nsubj	_	_
17	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
18	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
22	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
23	high	high	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	22	advmod	_	_
24	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	heap	heap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	regardless	regardless	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
33	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	weather	weather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | might · perfect | hill | the echo |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **hear** | past | people | the echo |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **sit** | past | wonderful old man |  |  | a heap of snow |  | of wind or weather; high *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on heap=Location |
| 4 | **word** |  |  | wonderful old man |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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