---
title: Whenever the bottom of the trunk cracked, he was in a great fright,… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Whenever the bottom of the trunk cracked, he was in a great fright, for if the trunk fell to pieces he would have made a tremendous somerset over the trees. Who acts: bottom, trunk. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flying Trunk, with its dependency tree a
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Flying Trunk, sentence 11

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Whenever the bottom of the trunk cracked, he was in a great fright, for if the trunk fell to pieces he would have made a tremendous somerset over the trees.

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**Who acts:** bottom, trunk · **What happens:** crack, be, fall, make · **To what, where:** great fright, tremendous somerset, trees

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flying Trunk. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bottom, trunk), 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:pg27200:35:11
# text = Whenever the bottom of the trunk cracked, he was in a great fright, for if the trunk fell to pieces he would have made a tremendous somerset over the trees.
1	Whenever	whenever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	7	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	cracked	crack	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	fright	fright	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux	_	_
26	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	acl:relcl	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	tremendous	tremendous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	somerset	somerset	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
30	over	over	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **crack** | past | the bottom of the trunk |  |  |  |  | whenever *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | bottom |  |  | a great fright |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **fall** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | the trunk |  |  |  |  | to pieces | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to piece=Theme |
| 4 | **make** | would · perfect | bottom | a tremendous somerset |  | the trees |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent somerset=Product |

<!-- .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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