---
title: There was no fence, for indeed there was nothing to fence in except… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: There was no fence, for indeed there was nothing to fence in except the long rows of fishes which were hung upon lines, one above the other, to dry in the wind. Who acts: fence, nothing. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 4, wi
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 4, sentence 83

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was no fence, for indeed there was nothing to fence in except the long rows of fishes which were hung upon lines, one above the other, to dry in the wind.

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**Who acts:** fence, nothing · **What happens:** be, hang, dry · **To what, where:** fishes, lines, wind

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fence, nothing), 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:pg27200:161:83
# text = There was no fence, for indeed there was nothing to fence in except the long rows of fishes which were hung upon lines, one above the other, to dry in the wind.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	fence	fence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
9	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
10	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	9	nsubj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	fence	fence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	except	except	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	rows	row	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	fishes	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	hung	hang	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl:relcl	_	_
23	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	lines	line	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	appos	_	_
27	above	above	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	dry	dry	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | no fence |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **be** | past | nothing |  |  | there |  | indeed *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **hang** | past · passive |  | fishes |  | lines |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme upon line=Destination |
| 4 | **dry** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | the wind |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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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