---
title: They play at being masters down there, those spirits of strength!" e… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They play at being masters down there, those spirits of strength!" exclaimed the Ice Maiden; "but the powers of nature are still the rulers." Who acts: children, spirits, powers. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, IX. the Ice Maiden, with its dependency tree an
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, IX. the Ice Maiden, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They play at being masters down there, those spirits of strength!" exclaimed the Ice Maiden; "but the powers of nature are still the rulers."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** children, spirits, powers · **What happens:** play, be, exclaim · **To what, where:** masters, Ice Maiden, rulers · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, IX. the Ice Maiden. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (children, spirits, powers), 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:pg27200:60:13
# text = They play at being masters down there, those spirits of strength!" exclaimed the Ice Maiden; "but the powers of nature are still the rulers."
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	play	play	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	cop	_	_
5	masters	master	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
6	down	down	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	spirits	spirit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
15	exclaimed	exclaim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	Ice	Ice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	Maiden	Maiden	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
20	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	powers	power	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	nature	nature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
26	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
27	still	still	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	rulers	ruler	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | present | children *= child* |  |  | there |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  | masters |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **exclaim** *speech: express* *in a quote* | past | that spirits of strength | the Ice Maiden |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent maiden=Topic |
| 4 | **is a** | present | the powers of nature | the rulers |  |  | still |  | 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.

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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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