---
title: Smooth as polished marble slabs, the waves of snow cracked and loose… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Smooth as polished marble slabs, the waves of snow cracked and loosened themselves, and then suddenly, with the rumbling noise of distant thunder, fell like a foaming cataract into the abyss. Who acts: snow, distant thunder. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, I
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, III. the Uncle, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Smooth as polished marble slabs, the waves of snow cracked and loosened themselves, and then suddenly, with the rumbling noise of distant thunder, fell like a foaming cataract into the abyss.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** snow, distant thunder · **What happens:** polish, crack, loosen, fall, foam, noise · **To what, where:** danger, abyss

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (snow, distant thunder), 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:pg27200:54:40
# text = Smooth as polished marble slabs, the waves of snow cracked and loosened themselves, and then suddenly, with the rumbling noise of distant thunder, fell like a foaming cataract into the abyss.
1	Smooth	smooth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
2	as	as	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	polished	polish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	amod	_	_
4	marble	marble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	slabs	slab	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
9	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	cracked	crack	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	loosened	loosen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
14	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	_
18	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	1	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	rumbling	rumbling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	distant	distant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	thunder	thunder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	parataxis	_	_
29	like	like	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	foaming	foam	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	32	amod	_	_
32	cataract	cataract	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
33	into	into	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	abyss	abyss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **polish** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **crack** | past | snow |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **loosen** | past | snow *not said here* | danger |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent themselves=Patient |
| 4 | **fall** | past |  |  |  |  |  | into the abyss *result*; like a foaming cataract | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into abyss=Result |
| 5 | **foam** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **noise** |  | distant thunder |  |  |  |  |  | nom noise «event intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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