---
title: Now came the question whether he could squeeze through the palings;… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Now came the question whether he could squeeze through the palings; he certainly had never tried, so he stood looking at them. " Who acts: rain. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Eventful Moment--a Most Unusual Journey, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Eventful Moment--a Most Unusual Journey, sentence 10

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Now came the question whether he could squeeze through the palings; he certainly had never tried, so he stood looking at them. "

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**Who acts:** rain · **What happens:** come, squeeze, not try, stand, look · **To what, where:** question, palings

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Eventful Moment--a Most Unusual Journey. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rain), 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:pg27200:43:10
# text = Now came the question whether he could squeeze through the palings; he certainly had never tried, so he stood looking at them. "
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	squeeze	squeeze	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl	_	_
9	through	through	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	palings	paling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
22	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	xcomp	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
26	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past |  | the question |  |  | now |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location question=Theme |
| 2 | **squeeze** | could | rain | the question *not said here* |  | the palings |  |  | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent question=Theme through paling=Trajectory |
| 3 | **not** **try** | past · perfect | rain |  |  |  |  | certainly *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **stand** | past | rain |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **look** | gerund | rain *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at goloshes *= golosh* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at they=Theme |

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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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