---
title: They went out of the house and stepped downwards, always downwards,… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They went out of the house and stepped downwards, always downwards, and it seemed to Babette as if she had a weight on her heart which continually grew heavier. Who acts: words, it, Babette, heart. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, XIV. Night Visions, with its
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, XIV. Night Visions, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They went out of the house and stepped downwards, always downwards, and it seemed to Babette as if she had a weight on her heart which continually grew heavier.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** words, it, Babette, heart · **What happens:** go out, step, seem, have, grow · **To what, where:** house, Babette, weight, heart

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, XIV. Night Visions. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (words, it, Babette, heart), 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:pg27200:65:15
# text = They went out of the house and stepped downwards, always downwards, and it seemed to Babette as if she had a weight on her heart which continually grew heavier.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	out	out	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	stepped	step	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	downwards	downwards	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	12	advmod	_	_
12	downwards	downwards	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	Babette	Babette	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	weight	weight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
28	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
29	continually	continually	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	acl:relcl	_	_
31	heavier	heavy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	30	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go out** | past | words *= word* | the house |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **step** | past | words *= word* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | downwards *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **seem** | past | it |  | Babette |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past | Babette | a weight |  | Babette's heart |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent weight=Patient |
| 5 | **grow** | past | Babette's heart |  |  |  |  | continually, heavy *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «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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