---
title: So saying, they tore the swan's plumage into a thousand pieces, the… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: So saying, they tore the swan's plumage into a thousand pieces, the feathers drifted about like a snow-shower, and then the two deceitful princesses flew away." Who acts: others, feathers, two deceitful princesses. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh K
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 1, sentence 45

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So saying, they tore the swan's plumage into a thousand pieces, the feathers drifted about like a snow-shower, and then the two deceitful princesses flew away."

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**Who acts:** others, feathers, two deceitful princesses · **What happens:** say, tore, drift, fly away · **To what, where:** plumage, thousand pieces · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (others, feathers, two deceitful princesses), 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:pg27200:83:45
# text = So saying, they tore the swan's plumage into a thousand pieces, the feathers drifted about like a snow-shower, and then the two deceitful princesses flew away."
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	tore	tore	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	swan	swan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	plumage	plumage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
10	into	into	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	drifted	drift	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
18	about	about	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	like	like	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	shower	shower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
26	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	31	advmod	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
28	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	nummod	_	_
29	deceitful	deceitful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	princesses	princess	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nsubj	_	_
31	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
32	away	away	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | others *= other* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tore** | past | others *= other* | the swan's plumage |  | thousand pieces |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **drift** | past | the feathers |  |  |  |  | like a snow shower; about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **fly away** | past | the two deceitful princesses |  |  |  | then | away *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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