---
title: The coloured lizards slipped away, startled, from before her feet, b… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The coloured lizards slipped away, startled, from before her feet, but she was not frightened at them. Who acts: coloured lizards. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Nineteenth Evening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Nineteenth Evening, sentence 14

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The coloured lizards slipped away, startled, from before her feet, but she was not frightened at them.

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**Who acts:** coloured lizards · **What happens:** slip away, startle, not frighten · **To what, where:** feet, beam

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Nineteenth Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (coloured lizards), 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:pg27200:110:14
# text = The coloured lizards slipped away, startled, from before her feet, but she was not frightened at them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	coloured	coloured	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	lizards	lizard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	slipped	slip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	away	away	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	startled	startle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	before	before	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **slip away** | past | the coloured lizards |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 2 | **startle** | past | the coloured lizards *not said here* |  |  | beam's feet |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **not** **frighten** | past · passive |  | beam |  |  |  | at lizards *= lizard* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |

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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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