---
title: For a moment all was dark before his eyes, but when he opened them a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: For a moment all was dark before his eyes, but when he opened them again it was light, and the Alpine maiden had vanished. Who acts: Maiden, kiss, Alpine maiden. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, XII. Evil Powers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, XII. Evil Powers, sentence 55

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For a moment all was dark before his eyes, but when he opened them again it was light, and the Alpine maiden had vanished.

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**Who acts:** Maiden, kiss, Alpine maiden · **What happens:** be, open, vanish · **To what, where:** eyes

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, XII. Evil Powers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Maiden, kiss, Alpine maiden), 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:pg27200:63:55
# text = For a moment all was dark before his eyes, but when he opened them again it was light, and the Alpine maiden had vanished.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	all	all	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	before	before	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
12	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	again	again	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	light	light	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	Alpine	alpine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	vanished	vanish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  | before Maiden's eyes; moment | all, dark *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **open** | past | Maiden | eyes *= eye* |  |  | again |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location they=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | kiss |  |  |  |  | light *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **vanish** | past · perfect | the Alpine maiden |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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