---
title: He did not perceive that the snowy carpet seemed to sink as it were… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He did not perceive that the snowy carpet seemed to sink as it were into the earth; that here and there a little green patch of grass appeared, and that these patches were covered with sparrows. Who acts: form, snowy carpet, carpet, little green patch. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian An
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Story of the Year, sentence 61

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He did not perceive that the snowy carpet seemed to sink as it were into the earth; that here and there a little green patch of grass appeared, and that these patches were covered with sparrows.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** form, snowy carpet, carpet, little green patch · **What happens:** not perceive, seem, sink, be, appear, cover · **To what, where:** earth, patches

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (form, snowy carpet, carpet, little green patch), 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:pg27200:214:61
# text = He did not perceive that the snowy carpet seemed to sink as it were into the earth; that here and there a little green patch of grass appeared, and that these patches were covered with sparrows.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	perceive	perceive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	snowy	snowy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	carpet	carpet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	sink	sink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	into	into	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	nsubj	_	_
20	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	parataxis	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
22	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	29	expl	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	patch	patch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
29	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
32	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
33	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	34	det	_	_
34	patches	patch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nsubj:pass	_	_
35	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux:pass	_	_
36	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
37	with	with	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **perceive** | past · do-support | form |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **seem** | past | the snowy carpet |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **sink** | to-infinitive | the snowy carpet *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **is** | past | carpet |  |  | the earth |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **appear** | past | a little green patch of grass |  |  | there |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **cover** | past · passive |  | this patches |  |  |  | with sparrows | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Destination with sparrow=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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