---
title: And at length they fell into rags and tatters, and thought it was al… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: And at length they fell into rags and tatters, and thought it was all over with them, for they were torn to shreds, and steeped in water, and made into a pulp, and dried, and they knew not what besides, till all at once they found themselves beautiful white paper. " Who acts: impossibilities, linen.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Flax, sentence 41

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And at length they fell into rags and tatters, and thought it was all over with them, for they were torn to shreds, and steeped in water, and made into a pulp, and dried, and they knew not what besides, till all at once they found themselves beautiful white paper. "

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**Who acts:** impossibilities, linen · **What happens:** fall, think, be, tear, steep, make · **To what, where:** length, impossibilities, pulp, all · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flax. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (impossibilities, linen), 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:pg27200:34:41
# text = And at length they fell into rags and tatters, and thought it was all over with them, for they were torn to shreds, and steeped in water, and made into a pulp, and dried, and they knew not what besides, till all at once they found themselves beautiful white paper. "
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	into	into	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	rags	rag	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	tatters	tatter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	all	all	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	over	over	ADV	RB	_	12	ccomp	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	torn	tear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	conj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	shreds	shred	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	steeped	steep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	parataxis	_	_
34	into	into	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	pulp	pulp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	dried	dry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
42	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
43	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
44	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	43	advmod	_	_
45	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	46	nsubj	_	_
46	besides	beside	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	43	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
48	till	till	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
49	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	46	obj	_	_
50	at	at	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
51	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	53	obl	_	_
52	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj	_	_
53	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	49	acl:relcl	_	_
54	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	53	obj	_	_
55	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	57	amod	_	_
56	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	57	amod	_	_
57	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
59	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past | impossibilities *= impossibility* |  |  | length |  | into rags and tatters | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at length=Location |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | impossibilities *= impossibility* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with impossibilities *= impossibility* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | linen |  |  |  |  | all, over *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **tear** | past · passive |  | impossibilities *= impossibility* |  |  |  | to shreds *result* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: subject=Patient to shred=Result |
| 5 | **steep** | past | impossibilities *= impossibility* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in water | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V PP.result PP.instrument»: agent=Patient in water=Instrument |
| 6 | **make** | participle |  |  |  | a pulp |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP.material PP.product»: agent=Agent into pulp=Product |
| 7 | **dry** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 8 | **not** **know** | past | impossibilities *= impossibility* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 9 | **beside** | present |  | all |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 10 | **find** | past | impossibilities *= impossibility* | impossibilities *= impossibility* |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme paper=Attribute |

<!-- .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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