---
title: The drifting snow-shower fell like a veil between them, the wind whi… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The drifting snow-shower fell like a veil between them, the wind whistled, and behind him he could hear the maiden laughing and singing, and the sound was most strange to hear. Who acts: drifting snow shower, wind, shower, maiden. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Ander
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/56/27/)

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, V. on the Way Home, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The drifting snow-shower fell like a veil between them, the wind whistled, and behind him he could hear the maiden laughing and singing, and the sound was most strange to hear.

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**Who acts:** drifting snow shower, wind, shower, maiden, sound · **What happens:** drift, fall, whistle, hear, laugh, sing · **To what, where:** maiden

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, V. on the Way Home. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (drifting snow shower, wind, shower, maiden), 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:pg27200:56:27
# text = The drifting snow-shower fell like a veil between them, the wind whistled, and behind him he could hear the maiden laughing and singing, and the sound was most strange to hear.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
2	drifting	drift	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	amod	_	_
3	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	shower	shower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	like	like	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	veil	veil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	between	between	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	whistled	whistle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	xcomp	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
33	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	34	advmod	_	_
34	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drift** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **fall** | past | the drifting snow shower |  |  |  |  | like a veil between fingers | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **whistle** | past | the wind |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **hear** | could | shower | the maiden |  |  |  | behind wind | tree rules |
| 5 | **laugh** | gerund | the maiden *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | the maiden *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **is** | past | the sound |  |  |  |  | strange *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **hear** | to-infinitive | the sound *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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