---
title: The boy stretched forth his hands towards the light, and at the same… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The boy stretched forth his hands towards the light, and at the same moment the Metal Pig started again so rapidly that he was obliged to cling tightly to him. Who acts: boy, Metal Pig. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Metal Pig, with its dependency tree 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Metal Pig, sentence 54

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The boy stretched forth his hands towards the light, and at the same moment the Metal Pig started again so rapidly that he was obliged to cling tightly to him.

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**Who acts:** boy, Metal Pig · **What happens:** stretch, start, oblige, cling · **To what, where:** hands, boy

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Metal Pig. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, Metal Pig), 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:pg27200:89:54
# text = The boy stretched forth his hands towards the light, and at the same moment the Metal Pig started again so rapidly that he was obliged to cling tightly to him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
7	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	Metal	Metal	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	Pig	Pig	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
20	again	again	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	rapidly	rapidly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	advcl	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	cling	cling	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	tightly	tightly	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stretch** | past | the boy | boy's hands |  |  |  | towards the light; forth *property* | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent hand=Patient towards light=Recipient |
| 2 | **start** | past | the Metal Pig |  |  |  | again; moment | rapidly *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **oblige** | past · passive |  | boy |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 4 | **cling** | to-infinitive |  |  | boy |  |  | tightly *property* | vn cling-22.5 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme to he=Co-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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