---
title: They uttered a singular cry, as they spread their glorious wings and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They uttered a singular cry, as they spread their glorious wings and flew away from those cold regions to warmer countries across the sea. Who acts: ducklings. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, sentence 134

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They uttered a singular cry, as they spread their glorious wings and flew away from those cold regions to warmer countries across the sea.

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**Who acts:** ducklings · **What happens:** utter, spread, fly away · **To what, where:** singular cry, glorious wings, cold regions

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ducklings), 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:pg27200:201:134
# text = They uttered a singular cry, as they spread their glorious wings and flew away from those cold regions to warmer countries across the sea.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	uttered	utter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	singular	singular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	cry	cry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	spread	spread	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	glorious	glorious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
15	away	away	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
18	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	regions	region	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	warmer	warm	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	22	amod	_	_
22	countries	country	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
23	across	across	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **utter** *speech: other* | past | ducklings *= duckling* | a singular cry |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent cry=Topic |
| 2 | **spread** | present | ducklings *= duckling* | ducklings's glorious wings |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location wing=Theme |
| 3 | **fly away** | past | ducklings *= duckling* *not said here* |  |  | that cold regions |  | to warmer countries; across the sea; away *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP PP.source PP.destination PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent from region=Initial\_Location to country=Destination across sea=Trajectory |

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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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