---
title: But the ducklings which crept forth from the eggs were also called "… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But the ducklings which crept forth from the eggs were also called "Portuguese," and about that there may be some question. Who acts: ducklings. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Portuguese Duck, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/145/3/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Portuguese Duck](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/145/) / 3

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Portuguese Duck, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the ducklings which crept forth from the eggs were also called "Portuguese," and about that there may be some question.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** ducklings · **What happens:** creep, call, be · **To what, where:** eggs, ducklings · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Portuguese Duck. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ducklings), 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:pg27200:145:3
# text = But the ducklings which crept forth from the eggs were also called "Portuguese," and about that there may be some question.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	ducklings	duckling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
6	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	eggs	egg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
11	also	also	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	Portuguese	Portuguese	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
18	about	about	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	22	expl	_	_
21	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	cop	_	_
23	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	det	_	_
24	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **creep** | past | the ducklings |  |  | the eggs |  | forth *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from egg=Trajectory |
| 2 | **call** | past · passive |  | the ducklings |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 3 | **is** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | about some question | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/145/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/145/4/)
- ↑ back to [The Portuguese Duck](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/145/)