--- title: It began to snow, and every snow-flake that fell on her was to her a… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: It began to snow, and every snow-flake that fell on her was to her as a whole shovelful thrown on one of us, for we are so big, and she was only an inch high. Who acts: death, snow flake, we, THUMBELINA. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), with its --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/47/129/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The Witch in the Stone Boat(31)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/47/) / 129 # The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 129 It began to snow, and every snow-flake that fell on her was to her as a whole shovelful thrown on one of us, for we are so big, and she was only an inch high. **Who acts:** death, snow flake, we, THUMBELINA · **What happens:** begin, fall, be, throw · **To what, where:** snow, whole shovelful, inch This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (death, snow flake, we, THUMBELINA), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg640:47:129 # text = It began to snow, and every snow-flake that fell on her was to her as a whole shovelful thrown on one of us, for we are so big, and 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 _ SpaceAfter=No 5 , , PUNCT , _ 21 punct _ _ 6 and and CCONJ CC _ 21 cc _ _ 7 every every DET DT PronType=Tot 10 det _ _ 8 snow snow NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 9 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 8 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 10 flake flake NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 nsubj _ _ 11 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 12 nsubj _ _ 12 fell fall VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 10 acl:relcl _ _ 13 on on ADP IN _ 14 case _ _ 14 her she PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 12 obl _ _ 15 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 21 cop _ _ 16 to to ADP IN _ 17 case _ _ 17 her she PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 15 obl _ _ 18 as as ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 19 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 21 det _ _ 20 whole whole ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 21 amod _ _ 21 shovelful shovelful NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 parataxis _ _ 22 thrown throw VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 21 acl _ _ 23 on on ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 24 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 22 obl _ _ 25 of of ADP IN _ 26 case _ _ 26 us we PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 24 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 27 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 28 for for SCONJ IN _ 32 mark _ _ 29 we we PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 32 nsubj _ _ 30 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 32 cop _ _ 31 so so ADV RB _ 32 advmod _ _ 32 big big ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 22 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 33 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 34 and and CCONJ CC _ 39 cc _ _ 35 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 39 nsubj _ _ 36 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 39 cop _ _ 37 only only ADV RB _ 39 advmod _ _ 38 an a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 39 det _ _ 39 inch inch NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 obl _ _ 40 high high ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 39 amod _ SpaceAfter=No 41 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | 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 | every snow flake | | | | | on THUMBELINA | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on she=Location | | 3 | **is** | past | every snow flake | | | | | as a whole shovelful | tree rules | | 4 | **throw** | participle | | a whole shovelful *not said here* | | | | on one of us | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent on one=Destination | | 5 | **is** | present | we | | | | | big *property* | tree rules | | 6 | **is a** | past | THUMBELINA | a inch | | | | | tree rules | 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. **Text:** «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order. - ← previous: [sentence 128](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/47/128/) - next →: [sentence 130](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/47/130/) - ↑ back to [The Witch in the Stone Boat(31)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/47/)