---
title: Then he flew down into the grass, turned his head about in every dir… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he flew down into the grass, turned his head about in every direction, and tapped his beak on the bending blades of grass, which, in proportion to his size, seemed to him as long as the palm-leaves in northern Africa. Who acts: comedy, grass. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Anderse
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/44/90/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Clerk's Transformation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/44/) / 90

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Clerk's Transformation, sentence 90

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then he flew down into the grass, turned his head about in every direction, and tapped his beak on the bending blades of grass, which, in proportion to his size, seemed to him as long as the palm-leaves in northern Africa.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** comedy, grass · **What happens:** fly down, turn, tap, seem · **To what, where:** grass, head, beak, comedy

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Clerk's Transformation. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (comedy, grass), 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:pg27200:44:90
# text = Then he flew down into the grass, turned his head about in every direction, and tapped his beak on the bending blades of grass, which, in proportion to his size, seemed to him as long as the palm-leaves in northern Africa.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	into	into	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	about	about	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
15	direction	direction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	tapped	tap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	beak	beak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	bending	bending	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	blades	blade	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
28	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	36	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	proportion	proportion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
36	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
37	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obl	_	_
39	as	as	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	36	advmod	_	_
41	as	as	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
43	palm	palm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	43	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	obl	_	_
46	in	in	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	northern	northern	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	Africa	Africa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly down** | past | comedy |  |  |  | then | into the grass *result*; down *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into grass=Result |
| 2 | **turn** | past | comedy *not said here* | comedy's head |  |  |  | about every direction | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent head=Theme |
| 3 | **tap** | past | comedy *not said here* | comedy's beak |  |  |  | on the bending blades of grass | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent beak=Instrument on blade=Patient |
| 4 | **seem** | past | grass |  | comedy |  |  | in proportion to comedy's size; long *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Theme in proportion=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/44/89/)
- next →: [sentence 91](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/44/91/)
- ↑ back to [The Clerk's Transformation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/44/)