---
title: They came at length to rocky ground; sometimes stepping upon moss-co… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They came at length to rocky ground; sometimes stepping upon moss-covered stones, sometimes passing beneath stunted fir-trees, and again through green meadows. Who acts: men. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, II. the Journey to the New Home, with its dependenc
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, II. the Journey to the New Home, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They came at length to rocky ground; sometimes stepping upon moss-covered stones, sometimes passing beneath stunted fir-trees, and again through green meadows.

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**Who acts:** men · **What happens:** come, step, cover, pass, stunt · **To what, where:** length, covered stones, stunted fir trees

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, II. the Journey to the New Home. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men), 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:pg27200:53:42
# text = They came at length to rocky ground; sometimes stepping upon moss-covered stones, sometimes passing beneath stunted fir-trees, and again through green meadows.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	rocky	rocky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
9	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	10	advmod	_	_
10	stepping	step	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
11	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	moss	moss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	amod	_	_
15	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	18	advmod	_	_
18	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
19	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	stunted	stunt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	amod	_	_
21	fir	fir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	again	again	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
27	through	through	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	meadows	meadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | men *= man* |  |  | length | again | to rocky ground | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to ground=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **step** | gerund | men *= man* *not said here* |  |  | covered stones |  | sometimes *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon stone=Trajectory |
| 3 | **cover** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **pass** | gerund | men *= man* *not said here* |  |  | stunted fir trees |  | sometimes *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme beneath tree=Location |
| 5 | **stunt** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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