---
title: It was they who cut a road out of the solid rock over the Simplon--s… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It was they who cut a road out of the solid rock over the Simplon--such a road, that I need only say to a child of three years old, 'Go down to Italy, you have only to keep in the high road,' and the child will soon arrive in Italy, if he followed my directions." Who acts: French, I, you, child. A s
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, III. the Uncle, sentence 21

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It was they who cut a road out of the solid rock over the Simplon--such a road, that I need only say to a child of three years old, 'Go down to Italy, you have only to keep in the high road,' and the child will soon arrive in Italy, if he followed my directions."

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**Who acts:** French, I, you, child · **What happens:** be, say, go down, have, keep, arrive · **To what, where:** solid rock, high road, Italy, directions · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, III. the Uncle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (French, I, you, child), 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:pg27200:54:21
# text = It was they who cut a road out of the solid rock over the Simplon--such a road, that I need only say to a child of three years old, 'Go down to Italy, you have only to keep in the high road,' and the child will soon arrive in Italy, if he followed my directions."
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	out	out	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	solid	solid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
13	over	over	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Simplon	Simplon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	19	det:predet	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	need	need	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	only	only	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
31	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl:unmarked	_	_
32	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	Go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	25	ccomp	_	_
36	down	down	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
37	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	Italy	Italy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
40	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
41	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	parataxis	_	_
42	only	only	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
43	to	to	PART	TO	_	44	mark	_	_
44	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	xcomp	_	_
45	in	in	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	41	punct	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	56	cc	_	_
52	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	nsubj	_	_
54	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	56	aux	_	_
55	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	56	advmod	_	_
56	arrive	arrive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	conj	_	_
57	in	in	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
58	Italy	Italy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	56	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	62	punct	_	_
60	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	62	mark	_	_
61	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	62	nsubj	_	_
62	followed	follow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	56	conj	_	_
63	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	64	nmod:poss	_	_
64	directions	direction	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	62	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | French |  |  | the solid rock over the Simplon and such road |  | cut *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | I |  |  |  |  | to a child | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to child=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go down** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **have** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **keep** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  | the high road |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in road=Location |
| 6 | **arrive** | future | the child |  |  | Italy |  | soon *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **follow** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | child | my directions |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent direction=Theme |

<!-- .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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