---
title: The church bells were ringing, and from the high towers sounded a fl… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The church bells were ringing, and from the high towers sounded a flourish of trumpets; and soldiers, with flying colors and glittering bayonets, lined the rocks through which they passed. Who acts: church bells, high towers, soldiers. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3, sentence 91

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The church bells were ringing, and from the high towers sounded a flourish of trumpets; and soldiers, with flying colors and glittering bayonets, lined the rocks through which they passed.

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**Who acts:** church bells, high towers, soldiers · **What happens:** ring, sound, fly, glitter, line, pass · **To what, where:** flourish, colors, rocks, trumpets

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (church bells, high towers, soldiers), 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:pg27200:77:91
# text = The church bells were ringing, and from the high towers sounded a flourish of trumpets; and soldiers, with flying colors and glittering bayonets, lined the rocks through which they passed.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	bells	bell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	ringing	ring	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
8	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	towers	tower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	sounded	sound	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	flourish	flourish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	trumpets	trumpet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
22	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	26	amod	_	_
23	colors	color	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	glittering	glitter	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	conj	_	_
26	bayonets	bayonet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
28	lined	line	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
31	through	through	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	34	obl	_	_
33	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	passed	pass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ring** | past · progressive | the church bells |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **sound** | past | the high towers | a flourish of trumpets |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location flourish=Theme |
| 3 | **fly** | gerund |  | colors |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location color=Theme |
| 4 | **glitter** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **line** | past | soldiers and flying bayonets | the rocks |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme rock=Destination |
| 6 | **pass** | past | soldiers *= soldier* |  |  | the rocks |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme through which=Location |
| 7 | **flourish** |  |  | trumpets |  |  |  |  | nom flourish «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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