---
title: It seemed rather a dangerous performance; but he turned round, and p… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It seemed rather a dangerous performance; but he turned round, and put out his tail, as mice do in a dairy, when they wish to skim the cream from a pan of milk with their tails and afterwards lick it off. Who acts: It, king, mice, thoughts. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, How It Was Prepared, sentence 15

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It seemed rather a dangerous performance; but he turned round, and put out his tail, as mice do in a dairy, when they wish to skim the cream from a pan of milk with their tails and afterwards lick it off.

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**Who acts:** It, king, mice, thoughts · **What happens:** seem, turn round, put out, do, wish, skim · **To what, where:** dangerous performance, tail, dairy, cream, pan

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, How It Was Prepared. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, king, mice, thoughts), 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:pg27200:182:15
# text = It seemed rather a dangerous performance; but he turned round, and put out his tail, as mice do in a dairy, when they wish to skim the cream from a pan of milk with their tails and afterwards lick it off.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	dangerous	dangerous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	performance	performance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
11	round	round	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
15	out	out	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
21	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	dairy	dairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	28	advmod	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	parataxis	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	skim	skim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	cream	cream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	from	from	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	pan	pan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	_
38	with	with	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
42	afterwards	afterwards	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
43	lick	lick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	conj	_	_
44	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	obj	_	_
45	off	off	ADP	RP	_	43	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | It | a dangerous performance |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **turn round** | past | king |  |  |  |  | round *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **put out** | participle | king *not said here* | king's tail |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent tail=Goal |
| 4 | **do** | present | mice |  |  | a dairy |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **wish** | present | thoughts *= thought* |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 6 | **skim** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | thoughts *= thought* *not said here* | the cream |  | a pan of milk |  | with thoughts's tails | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent cream=Theme from pan=Source |
| 7 | **lick off** | infinitive | thoughts *= thought* *not said here* | tail |  |  |  | afterwards *property* | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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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