---
title: It seemed to me as if I were again in the pyramids of Egypt, and yet… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It seemed to me as if I were again in the pyramids of Egypt, and yet the waving elder trunk that had frightened me on the moor stood ever before me. Who acts: It, I, waving elder trunk. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 5, with 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 5, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It seemed to me as if I were again in the pyramids of Egypt, and yet the waving elder trunk that had frightened me on the moor stood ever before me.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, I, waving elder trunk · **What happens:** seem, be, wave, frighten, stand · **To what, where:** me, pyramids, waving elder trunk, moor

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, I, waving elder trunk), 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:pg27200:87:27
# text = It seemed to me as if I were again in the pyramids of Egypt, and yet the waving elder trunk that had frightened me on the moor stood ever before me.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	again	again	ADV	RB	_	2	xcomp	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	pyramids	pyramid	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
19	waving	wave	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	amod	_	_
20	elder	elder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
22	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	acl:relcl	_	_
25	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	moor	moor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
29	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
30	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	29	advmod	_	_
31	before	before	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | It |  | me |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | I |  |  | the pyramids of Egypt |  | again *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **wave** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **frighten** | past · perfect · passive |  | the waving elder trunk |  | the moor |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer i=Result |
| 5 | **stand** | past | the waving elder trunk |  |  |  | before me; ever |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before i=Location |

<!-- .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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