---
title: When at length he stood on the topmost step of the ladder, he found… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: When at length he stood on the topmost step of the ladder, he found that he was still some distance below the nest, and not even able to see into it. Who acts: Rudy. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, VII. the Eagle's Nest, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, VII. the Eagle's Nest, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When at length he stood on the topmost step of the ladder, he found that he was still some distance below the nest, and not even able to see into it.

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**Who acts:** Rudy · **What happens:** stand, find, be, see, step · **To what, where:** length, distance, nest, ladder · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Rudy), 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:pg27200:58:38
# text = When at length he stood on the topmost step of the ladder, he found that he was still some distance below the nest, and not even able to see into it.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	topmost	topmost	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	ladder	ladder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
19	still	still	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
20	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	21	det	_	_
21	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	ccomp	_	_
22	below	below	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
28	even	even	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	ccomp	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	into	into	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | Rudy |  |  | length |  | on the topmost step of the ladder | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at length=Location |
| 2 | **find** | past | Rudy |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | past | Rudy | some distance |  | the nest | still |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | Rudy *not said here* |  |  | nest |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **step** |  |  | the ladder |  |  |  |  | nom step «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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