---
title: It was difficult to advance: wood lilies and anemones grew almost to… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It was difficult to advance: wood lilies and anemones grew almost too high; flowering convolvuli and brambles were hanging like garlands from tree to tree; while the nightingales were singing and the sunbeams played. Who acts: wood lilies, convolvuli, nightingales, sunbeams. A sentence of «Fairy Tal
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Bell, sentence 31

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It was difficult to advance: wood lilies and anemones grew almost too high; flowering convolvuli and brambles were hanging like garlands from tree to tree; while the nightingales were singing and the sunbeams played.

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**Who acts:** wood lilies, convolvuli, nightingales, sunbeams · **What happens:** be, advance, grow, flower, hang, sing · **To what, where:** convolvuli

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bell. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wood lilies, convolvuli, nightingales, sunbeams), 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:pg27200:9:31
# text = It was difficult to advance: wood lilies and anemones grew almost too high; flowering convolvuli and brambles were hanging like garlands from tree to tree; while the nightingales were singing and the sunbeams played.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	expl	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	advance	advance	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
7	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	lilies	lily	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	anemones	anemone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
11	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	too	too	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	flowering	flower	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
17	convolvuli	convolvuli	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	brambles	bramble	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	conj	_	_
20	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl	_	_
21	hanging	hang	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	xcomp	_	_
22	like	like	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	garlands	garland	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
24	from	from	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	nightingales	nightingale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
32	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	sunbeams	sunbeam	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	nsubj	_	_
37	played	play	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | difficult *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **advance** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn caused\_calibratable\_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **grow** | past | wood lilies and anemones |  |  |  |  | high *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **flower** | gerund | wood lilies and anemones *not said here* | convolvuli and brambles |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP.location V NP»: agent=Location convolvuli=Theme |
| 5 | **be** | past | convolvuli and brambles *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **hang** | gerund | convolvuli and brambles *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like garlands from tree; to tree | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **sing** *speech: express* | past · progressive | the nightingales |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **play** | past | the sunbeams |  |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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