---
title: The shoals of the mackerel glittered in the dark nights, and indicat… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The shoals of the mackerel glittered in the dark nights, and indicated where they were swimming; the gurnards snarled, and the crabs gave forth pitiful yells when they were chased, for fish are not so mute as people say. Who acts: shoals, crabs, fish, people. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Chris
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 5, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The shoals of the mackerel glittered in the dark nights, and indicated where they were swimming; the gurnards snarled, and the crabs gave forth pitiful yells when they were chased, for fish are not so mute as people say.

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**Who acts:** shoals, crabs, fish, people · **What happens:** glitter, indicate, swim, snarl, give, chase · **To what, where:** mackerel, shoals, gurnards, pitiful yells, crabs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shoals, crabs, fish, people), 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:pg27200:162:11
# text = The shoals of the mackerel glittered in the dark nights, and indicated where they were swimming; the gurnards snarled, and the crabs gave forth pitiful yells when they were chased, for fish are not so mute as people say.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	shoals	shoal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	mackerel	mackerel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	glittered	glitter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	nights	night	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	indicated	indicate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
14	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	17	advmod	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	swimming	swim	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	gurnards	gurnard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
21	snarled	snarl	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	crabs	crab	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
26	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
27	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
28	pitiful	pitiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	yells	yell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
30	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	33	advmod	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	chased	chase	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
35	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	40	mark	_	_
36	fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nsubj	_	_
37	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	40	cop	_	_
38	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	40	advmod	_	_
39	so	so	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	mute	mute	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	parataxis	_	_
41	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	43	mark	_	_
42	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	nsubj	_	_
43	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	40	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **glitter** | participle |  | the mackerel *not said here* |  |  | night |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **indicate** | participle · passive |  | the shoals of the mackerel |  |  |  | the gurnards *obl* | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |
| 3 | **swim** | past · progressive | shoals *= shoal* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **snarl** | participle |  | the gurnards *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **give** | past | the crabs | pitiful yells |  |  |  | forth *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent yell=Theme |
| 6 | **chase** | past · passive |  | crabs *= crab* |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 7 | **not** **is** | present | fish |  |  |  |  | mute *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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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