---
title: When seen from the heights, the trunks of these trees looked like sl… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: When seen from the heights, the trunks of these trees looked like slender stems; but on a nearer inspection they were found to be large and strong enough for the masts of a ship. Who acts: trunks. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, V. on the Way Home, with its 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/56/7/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [V. on the Way Home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/56/) / 7

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, V. on the Way Home, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When seen from the heights, the trunks of these trees looked like slender stems; but on a nearer inspection they were found to be large and strong enough for the masts of a ship.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** trunks · **What happens:** see, look, find, be · **To what, where:** heights, trunks, nearer inspection

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (trunks), 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:pg27200:56:7
# text = When seen from the heights, the trunks of these trees looked like slender stems; but on a nearer inspection they were found to be large and strong enough for the masts of a ship.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	2	mark	_	_
2	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	advcl	_	_
3	from	from	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	heights	height	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	trunks	trunk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
11	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
12	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
13	like	like	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	slender	slender	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	stems	stem	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	21	amod	_	_
21	inspection	inspection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	cop	_	_
27	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	xcomp	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	conj	_	_
30	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
31	for	for	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	masts	mast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | participle |  |  |  | the heights |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **look** | past | the trunks of this trees | the heights *not said here* |  |  |  | like slender stems | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme height=Attribute |
| 3 | **find** | past · passive |  | trunks *= trunk* |  | a nearer inspection |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |
| 4 | **is** | to-infinitive | trunks *= trunk* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the masts of a ship; enough, large *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** |  | trunks *= trunk* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/56/6/)
- next →: [sentence 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/56/8/)
- ↑ back to [V. on the Way Home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/56/)