---
title: The water, which a few moments before had been as clear and smooth a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The water, which a few moments before had been as clear and smooth as a mirror, became very troubled. Who acts: water. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 3

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The water, which a few moments before had been as clear and smooth as a mirror, became very troubled.

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**Who acts:** water · **What happens:** be, become

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Neighbouring Families. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (water), 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:pg27200:124:3
# text = The water, which a few moments before had been as clear and smooth as a mirror, became very troubled.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
4	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	moments	moment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
8	before	before	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	cop	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	clear	clear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	smooth	smooth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	_
15	as	as	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	mirror	mirror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
19	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	very	very	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	troubled	troubled	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past · perfect | the water |  |  |  |  | clear *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | the water *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as a mirror | tree rules |
| 3 | **become** | past | the water |  |  |  |  | troubled *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

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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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