---
title: And the Mother-Stork began talking in the nest, and told about Egypt… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: And the Mother-Stork began talking in the nest, and told about Egypt and the waters of the Nile, and the incomparable mud that was to be found in that strange land; and all this sounded new and very charming to the little Toad. Who acts: Mother, this. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian And
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/194/156/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Toad](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/194/) / 156

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Toad, sentence 156

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the Mother-Stork began talking in the nest, and told about Egypt and the waters of the Nile, and the incomparable mud that was to be found in that strange land; and all this sounded new and very charming to the little Toad.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Mother, this · **What happens:** begin, talk, tell, find, sound, charm · **To what, where:** nest, incomparable mud, strange land · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Toad. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mother, this), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:194:156
# text = And the Mother-Stork began talking in the nest, and told about Egypt and the waters of the Nile, and the incomparable mud that was to be found in that strange land; and all this sounded new and very charming to the little Toad.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	Stork	Stork	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	_
6	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	xcomp	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
14	about	about	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	Nile	Nile	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	incomparable	incomparable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	mud	mud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj:pass	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux:pass	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	aux:pass	_	_
31	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	acl:relcl	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	35	det	_	_
34	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	40	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
38	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	40	det:predet	_	_
39	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	40	nsubj	_	_
40	sounded	sound	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
41	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	xcomp	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
43	very	very	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
44	charming	charm	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	40	conj	_	_
45	to	to	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	Toad	Toad	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	44	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the Mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **talk** | gerund | the Mother *not said here* |  |  | the nest |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the Mother *not said here* | the incomparable mud |  |  |  | about Egypt and the waters of the Nile | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent about egypt=Topic |
| 4 | **find** | past · passive | the Mother *not said here* | the incomparable mud |  | that strange land |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |
| 5 | **sound** | past | this |  |  |  |  | new *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 6 | **charm** | gerund | this *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the little Toad | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 155](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/194/155/)
- next →: [sentence 157](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/194/157/)
- ↑ back to [The Toad](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/194/)