---
title: So he seized the chest in his hand and lifted it up a little, as if… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: So he seized the chest in his hand and lifted it up a little, as if he were going to throw it into the water. Who acts: water. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Claus and Big Claus, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Little Claus and Big Claus, sentence 88

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So he seized the chest in his hand and lifted it up a little, as if he were going to throw it into the water.

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**Who acts:** water · **What happens:** seize, lift up, go, throw · **To what, where:** chest, hand, water

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Claus and Big Claus. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (water), 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:pg27200:71:88
# text = So he seized the chest in his hand and lifted it up a little, as if he were going to throw it into the water.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	chest	chest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	lifted	lift	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	up	up	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	throw	throw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	into	into	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | past | water | the chest |  | water's hand |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chest=Theme |
| 2 | **lift up** | past | water *not said here* | chest |  |  |  | a little *obl:unmarked* | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **go** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · progressive | water |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **throw** | to-infinitive | water *not said here* | chest |  |  |  | into the water *result* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer it=Theme into water=Result |

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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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