---
title: He whirled himself in the water like a wheel, stretched out his neck… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He whirled himself in the water like a wheel, stretched out his neck towards them, and uttered a cry so strange that it frightened himself. Who acts: air, cry. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/201/136/)

<!-- 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 Ugly Duckling](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/201/) / 136

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, sentence 136

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He whirled himself in the water like a wheel, stretched out his neck towards them, and uttered a cry so strange that it frightened himself.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** air, cry · **What happens:** whirl, stretch out, utter, frighten · **To what, where:** air, water, neck, cry

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (air, cry), 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:pg27200:201:136
# text = He whirled himself in the water like a wheel, stretched out his neck towards them, and uttered a cry so strange that it frightened himself.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	whirled	whirl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	like	like	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	wheel	wheel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
12	out	out	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	uttered	utter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	cry	cry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
27	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **whirl** | past | air | air |  | the water like a wheel |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 2 | **stretch out** | participle | air *not said here* | air's neck |  |  |  | towards ducklings *= duckling* | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent neck=Patient towards they=Recipient |
| 3 | **utter** *speech: other* | past | air *not said here* | a cry |  |  |  | strange *property* | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent cry=Topic |
| 4 | **frighten** | past | cry | air |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus himself=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 135](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/201/135/)
- next →: [sentence 137](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/201/137/)
- ↑ back to [The Ugly Duckling](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/201/)