---
title: As they sailed on, they came by chance to the place where the boatma… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: As they sailed on, they came by chance to the place where the boatman's assistant lived, at a little distance from the bank of the river. Who acts: horses, assistant. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ib and Little Christina, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Ib and Little Christina, sentence 28

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As they sailed on, they came by chance to the place where the boatman's assistant lived, at a little distance from the bank of the river.

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**Who acts:** horses, assistant · **What happens:** sail, come, live

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ib and Little Christina. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (horses, assistant), 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:pg27200:51:28
# text = As they sailed on, they came by chance to the place where the boatman's assistant lived, at a little distance from the bank of the river.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sailed	sail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
4	on	on	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	18	advmod	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	boatman	boatman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	's	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	_
17	assistant	assistant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
24	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sail** | past | horses *= horse* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **come** | past | horses *= horse* |  |  |  |  | by chance to the place | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by chance=Location |
| 3 | **live** | past | the boatman's assistant |  |  |  |  | at a little distance from the bank of the river | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at distance=Location |

<!-- .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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