---
title: But it was not so; the eagle sunk gradually into the abyss beneath,… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But it was not so; the eagle sunk gradually into the abyss beneath, and the branches of trees and bushes were broken by its weight. Who acts: bird, weight. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, VII. the Eagle's Nest, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, VII. the Eagle's Nest, sentence 27

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But it was not so; the eagle sunk gradually into the abyss beneath, and the branches of trees and bushes were broken by its weight.

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**Who acts:** bird, weight · **What happens:** not be, break · **To what, where:** branches

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, VII. the Eagle's Nest. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bird, weight), 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:pg27200:58:27
# text = But it was not so; the eagle sunk gradually into the abyss beneath, and the branches of trees and bushes were broken by its weight.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	eagle	eagle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	sunk	sunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	_
10	gradually	gradually	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
11	into	into	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	abyss	abyss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
14	beneath	beneath	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	bushes	bush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	parataxis	_	_
25	by	by	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	weight	weight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | bird |  |  |  |  | so *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **break** | past · passive | bird's weight | the branches of trees and bushes |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer subject=Patient |

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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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