---
title: Their countenances were so distorted that no one could recognize the… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Their countenances were so distorted that no one could recognize them, and even one freckle on the face appeared to spread over the whole of the nose and mouth. Who acts: one, one freckle. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Story the First. Which describes a lo
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Story the First. Which describes a looking-glass and the broken fragments, sentence 4

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Their countenances were so distorted that no one could recognize them, and even one freckle on the face appeared to spread over the whole of the nose and mouth.

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**Who acts:** one, one freckle · **What happens:** distort, recognize, appear, spread · **To what, where:** countenances, people, whole

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Story the First. Which describes a looking-glass and the broken fragments. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one, one freckle), 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:pg27200:170:4
# text = Their countenances were so distorted that no one could recognize them, and even one freckle on the face appeared to spread over the whole of the nose and mouth.
1	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	countenances	countenance	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	distorted	distort	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	8	det	_	_
8	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	recognize	recognize	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
14	even	even	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
16	freckle	freckle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	spread	spread	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	over	over	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **distort** | past · passive |  | people's countenances |  |  |  |  | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: subject=Material |
| 2 | **recognize** | could | no one | people |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 3 | **appear** | past | one freckle on the face |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **spread** | to-infinitive | one freckle on the face *not said here* |  |  | the whole |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over whole=Location |

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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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