---
title: His feathers had been much ruffled by his bath, so that he seemed to… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: His feathers had been much ruffled by his bath, so that he seemed to them quite like a tiny Chinese fowl. " Who acts: bath, Chinese. 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.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Portuguese Duck, sentence 47

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His feathers had been much ruffled by his bath, so that he seemed to them quite like a tiny Chinese fowl. "

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**Who acts:** bath, Chinese · **What happens:** ruffle, seem · **To what, where:** feathers

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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 (bath, Chinese), 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:pg27200:145:47
# text = His feathers had been much ruffled by his bath, so that he seemed to them quite like a tiny Chinese fowl. "
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	aux:pass	_	_
5	much	much	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	ruffled	ruffle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	bath	bath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	14	mark	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	fixed	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	_
17	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
18	like	like	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	fowl	fowl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
24	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ruffle** | past · perfect · passive | Chinese's bath | Chinese's feathers |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus subject=Experiencer |
| 2 | **seem** | past | Chinese |  | feathers *= feather* |  |  | like a tiny Chinese fowl | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |

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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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