---
title: Then she lay down to drink up the lake, and that was an impossibilit… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then she lay down to drink up the lake, and that was an impossibility for a human being, but the afflicted mother thought that a miracle might happen nevertheless. Who acts: woman, that, afflicted mother, miracle. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of a Mother, with 
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Story of a Mother, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then she lay down to drink up the lake, and that was an impossibility for a human being, but the afflicted mother thought that a miracle might happen nevertheless.

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**Who acts:** woman, that, afflicted mother, miracle · **What happens:** lie down, drink up, be, afflict, think, happen · **To what, where:** lake, impossibility · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (woman, that, afflicted mother, miracle), 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:pg1597:21:30
# text = Then she lay down to drink up the lake, and that was an impossibility for a human being, but the afflicted mother thought that a miracle might happen nevertheless.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
7	up	up	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	impossibility	impossibility	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
16	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	acl	_	_
19	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	afflicted	afflict	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
24	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	miracle	miracle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
29	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	ccomp	_	_
31	nevertheless	nevertheless	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie down** | past | woman |  |  |  | then | down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **drink up** | to-infinitive | woman *not said here* | the lake |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lake=Patient |
| 3 | **is a** | past | that | a impossibility |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **afflict** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the afflicted mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **happen** | might | a miracle |  |  |  |  | nevertheless *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=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:** «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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