---
title: The lake was not frozen sufficiently to bear her; neither was it ope… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The lake was not frozen sufficiently to bear her; neither was it open, nor low enough that she could wade through it; and across it she must go if she would find her child! Who acts: neither, woman. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of a Mother, with its dependency 
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Story of a Mother, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The lake was not frozen sufficiently to bear her; neither was it open, nor low enough that she could wade through it; and across it she must go if she would find her child!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** neither, woman · **What happens:** not freeze, bear, be, wade, go, find · **To what, where:** lake, woman, child

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of a Mother. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (neither, woman), 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:pg1597:21:29
# text = The lake was not frozen sufficiently to bear her; neither was it open, nor low enough that she could wade through it; and across it she must go if she would find her child!
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	frozen	freeze	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	sufficiently	sufficiently	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
9	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	neither	neither	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	17	cc	_	_
17	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	_
18	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	wade	wade	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
23	through	through	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
27	across	across	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	_
29	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
32	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
33	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	advcl	_	_
36	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **freeze** | past · passive |  | the lake |  |  |  | sufficiently *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Result |
| 2 | **bear** | to-infinitive |  | woman |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | neither |  |  |  |  | open *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | neither *not said here* |  |  |  |  | enough *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **wade** | could | woman |  |  | lake |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through it=Trajectory |
| 6 | **go** | must | woman |  |  | lake |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme across it=Initial\_Location |
| 7 | **find** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | woman | woman's child |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Topic |

<!-- .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:** «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 1597 (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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