---
title: But the time of thy life shall then be shortened; the line of years… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But the time of thy life shall then be shortened; the line of years that awaited thee here amid the free nature shall shrink to but a small tale. Who acts: line, free nature. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Dryad, part 1, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Dryad, part 1, sentence 128

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But the time of thy life shall then be shortened; the line of years that awaited thee here amid the free nature shall shrink to but a small tale.

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**Who acts:** line, free nature · **What happens:** shorten, await, shrink · **To what, where:** time, thee

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Dryad, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (line, free nature), 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:pg27200:24:128
# text = But the time of thy life shall then be shortened; the line of years that awaited thee here amid the free nature shall shrink to but a small tale.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
8	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	shortened	shorten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	line	line	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	awaited	await	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
18	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	17	obj	_	_
19	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
20	amid	amid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	free	free	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	nature	nature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	shrink	shrink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	parataxis	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	obl	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shorten** | shall · passive |  | the time of thy life |  |  | then | the line of years but a small tale *obl* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **await** | past | the line of years but a small tale | thee |  | here |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **shrink** | shall | the free nature |  |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=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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