---
title: Like a lightning flash the slender stem shot upwards in a zigzag lin… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Like a lightning flash the slender stem shot upwards in a zigzag line, the branches spreading around it like green gauze and banners. Who acts: slender stem, branches. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Last Dream of the Old Oak, with its dependency tree an
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Last Dream of the Old Oak, sentence 71

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Like a lightning flash the slender stem shot upwards in a zigzag line, the branches spreading around it like green gauze and banners.

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**Who acts:** slender stem, branches · **What happens:** shoot, spread · **To what, where:** zigzag line, stem

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Last Dream of the Old Oak. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (slender stem, branches), 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:pg27200:69:71
# text = Like a lightning flash the slender stem shot upwards in a zigzag line, the branches spreading around it like green gauze and banners.
1	Like	like	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	lightning	lightning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	flash	flash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	slender	slender	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	stem	stem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	shot	shoot	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	upwards	upwards	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	zigzag	zigzag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	line	line	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	appos	_	_
17	spreading	spread	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	acl	_	_
18	around	around	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
20	like	like	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	gauze	gauze	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	banners	banner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shoot** | past | the slender stem |  |  | a zigzag line |  | like a lightning flash; upwards *property* | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent in line=Destination |
| 2 | **spread** | gerund | the branches *not said here* |  |  | stem |  | like green gauze and banners | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme around it=Location |

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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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