---
title: From the valley came a rumbling sound; men were busily at work blast… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: From the valley came a rumbling sound; men were busily at work blasting the rocks to form tunnels, and laying down roads for the railway. " Who acts: men, work. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, IX. the Ice Maiden, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, IX. the Ice Maiden, sentence 6

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From the valley came a rumbling sound; men were busily at work blasting the rocks to form tunnels, and laying down roads for the railway. "

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**Who acts:** men, work · **What happens:** come, rumble, be, blast, form, lay down · **To what, where:** rumbling sound, valley, work, rocks, tunnels, roads

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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 (men, work), 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:pg27200:60:6
# text = From the valley came a rumbling sound; men were busily at work blasting the rocks to form tunnels, and laying down roads for the railway. "
1	From	from	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	valley	valley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	rumbling	rumble	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	amod	_	_
7	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
9	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	busily	busily	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
14	blasting	blast	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	acl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	form	form	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
19	tunnels	tunnel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	laying	lay	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
23	down	down	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	roads	road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	railway	railway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past |  | a rumbling sound |  | the valley |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location sound=Theme |
| 2 | **rumble** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | men |  |  | work |  | busily *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **blast** | gerund | work *not said here* | the rocks |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location rock=Theme |
| 5 | **form** | to-infinitive | work *not said here* | tunnels |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tunnel=Theme |
| 6 | **lay down** | gerund |  | roads |  |  |  | for the railway | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent road=Result for railway=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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