---
title: They were very large, so large, indeed, that they had belonged to he… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They were very large, so large, indeed, that they had belonged to her mother, and the poor little creature had lost them in running across the street to avoid two carriages that were rolling along at a terrible rate. Who acts: slippers, two carriages. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian And
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Match-seller, sentence 4

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They were very large, so large, indeed, that they had belonged to her mother, and the poor little creature had lost them in running across the street to avoid two carriages that were rolling along at a terrible rate.

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**Who acts:** slippers, two carriages · **What happens:** be, belong, lose, run, avoid, roll · **To what, where:** poor little creature, street, two carriages, terrible rate

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Match-seller. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (slippers, two carriages), 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:pg27200:74:4
# text = They were very large, so large, indeed, that they had belonged to her mother, and the poor little creature had lost them in running across the street to avoid two carriages that were rolling along at a terrible rate.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	belonged	belong	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
28	running	run	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	advcl	_	_
29	across	across	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	avoid	avoid	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	advcl	_	_
34	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	35	nummod	_	_
35	carriages	carriage	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obj	_	_
36	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	38	nsubj	_	_
37	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
38	rolling	roll	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	acl:relcl	_	_
39	along	along	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
40	at	at	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
41	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
42	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	rate	rate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | slippers *= slipper* |  |  |  |  | large *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | slippers *= slipper* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | indeed *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **belong** | past · perfect | slippers *= slipper* |  |  |  |  | to girl's mother | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **lose** | past · perfect · passive |  | the poor little creature |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **run** | gerund |  |  |  | the street |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme across street=Trajectory |
| 6 | **avoid** | to-infinitive |  | two carriages |  |  |  |  | vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent carriage=Location |
| 7 | **roll** | past · progressive | two carriages |  |  | a terrible rate |  | along *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at rate=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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