---
title: Within this hollow stood a large town; we may form some idea of its… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Within this hollow stood a large town; we may form some idea of its appearance by pouring the white of an egg into a glass of water. Who acts: we. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Watchman's Adventures, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Watchman's Adventures, sentence 62

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Within this hollow stood a large town; we may form some idea of its appearance by pouring the white of an egg into a glass of water.

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**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** stand, form, pour · **To what, where:** large town, idea, white, glass

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Watchman's Adventures. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we), 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:pg27200:42:62
# text = Within this hollow stood a large town; we may form some idea of its appearance by pouring the white of an egg into a glass of water.
1	Within	within	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	hollow	hollow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
4	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
9	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	form	form	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
12	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	13	det	_	_
13	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	appearance	appearance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	pouring	pour	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	advcl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	white	white	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	into	into	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	glass	glass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past |  | a large town |  |  |  | within this hollow | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer town=Stimulus |
| 2 | **form** | may | we | some idea of idea's appearance |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location idea=Theme |
| 3 | **pour** | gerund | we *not said here* | the white of a egg |  | a glass of water |  |  | vn pour-9.5 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Agent white=Theme into glass=Destination |

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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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