---
title: He spoke of the bright winter nights, when the sledge bells are ring… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He spoke of the bright winter nights, when the sledge bells are ringing, and the boys run with burning torches across the smooth ice, which is so transparent that they can see the fishes dart forward beneath their feet. Who acts: Father, sledge bells, boys, smooth ice. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Elfin Hill, sentence 63

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He spoke of the bright winter nights, when the sledge bells are ringing, and the boys run with burning torches across the smooth ice, which is so transparent that they can see the fishes dart forward beneath their feet.

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**Who acts:** Father, sledge bells, boys, smooth ice, fishes · **What happens:** speak, ring, run, burn, be, see · **To what, where:** smooth ice, feet · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Elfin Hill. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Father, sledge bells, boys, smooth ice), 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:pg27200:31:63
# text = He spoke of the bright winter nights, when the sledge bells are ringing, and the boys run with burning torches across the smooth ice, which is so transparent that they can see the fishes dart forward beneath their feet.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	nights	night	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	sledge	sledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	bells	bell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
13	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	ringing	ring	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	run	run	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	amod	_	_
22	torches	torch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
23	across	across	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	smooth	smooth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
29	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
30	so	so	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	transparent	transparent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
32	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
33	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	advcl	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	fishes	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nsubj	_	_
38	dart	dart	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	ccomp	_	_
39	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
40	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | Father |  |  |  | night |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **ring** | present · progressive | the sledge bells |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **run** | present | the boys |  |  | the smooth ice |  | with burning torches | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme across ice=Trajectory |
| 4 | **burn** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | present | the smooth ice |  |  |  |  | transparent *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **see** | can | boys *= boy* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 7 | **dart** | present | the fishes |  |  | fishes's feet |  | forward *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme beneath foot=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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