---
title: It began to snow too; and the snow-flakes, as they fell upon her, we… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It began to snow too; and the snow-flakes, as they fell upon her, were like a whole shovelful falling upon one of us, for we are tall, but she was only an inch high. Who acts: death, flakes, snow flakes, whole shovelful. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Littl
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Little Tiny or Thumbelina, sentence 60

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It began to snow too; and the snow-flakes, as they fell upon her, were like a whole shovelful falling upon one of us, for we are tall, but she was only an inch high.

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**Who acts:** death, flakes, snow flakes, whole shovelful, we, tree · **What happens:** begin, fall, be · **To what, where:** snow, snow flakes, inch

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Tiny or Thumbelina. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (death, flakes, snow flakes, whole shovelful), 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:pg27200:79:60
# text = It began to snow too; and the snow-flakes, as they fell upon her, were like a whole shovelful falling upon one of us, for we are tall, but she was only an inch high.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	too	too	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	flakes	flake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
16	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
20	like	like	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	shovelful	shovelful	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
24	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	acl	_	_
25	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
31	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
35	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
36	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
37	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	cop	_	_
38	only	only	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
39	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	inch	inch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	_
41	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | death | snow |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent snow=Eventuality |
| 2 | **fall** | past | flakes *= flake* | the snow flakes *not said here* |  |  |  | upon tree | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient flake=Result |
| 3 | **is** | past | the snow flakes |  |  |  |  | like a whole shovelful | tree rules |
| 4 | **fall** | gerund | a whole shovelful *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon one of us | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon one=Location |
| 5 | **is** | present | we |  |  |  |  | tall *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **is a** | past | tree | a inch |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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