---
title: I laughed at the poor duck with the red rag on her leg; she limped a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I laughed at the poor duck with the red rag on her leg; she limped along so funnily, I could not help laughing; but it's a sin to laugh at animals.' Who acts: I, duck, leg. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-first Evening, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Twenty-first Evening, sentence 20

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I laughed at the poor duck with the red rag on her leg; she limped along so funnily, I could not help laughing; but it's a sin to laugh at animals.'

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**Who acts:** I, duck, leg · **What happens:** laugh, limp, not help, be · **To what, where:** sin

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-first Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, duck, leg), 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:pg27200:112:20
# text = I laughed at the poor duck with the red rag on her leg; she limped along so funnily, I could not help laughing; but it's a sin to laugh at animals.'
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	rag	rag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	leg	leg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	limped	limp	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
17	along	along	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	funnily	funnily	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
25	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	sin	sin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	laugh	laugh	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	acl	_	_
34	at	at	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | past | I |  |  |  |  | at the poor duck with the red rag on duck's leg | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **limp** | past | duck |  |  |  |  | along, funnily *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **help** | could | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **laugh** *not said to happen* | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | present | leg | a sin |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **laugh** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at animals | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «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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