---
title: Could he ever forget those beautiful, happy birds; and when at last… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Could he ever forget those beautiful, happy birds; and when at last they were out of his sight, he dived under the water, and rose again almost beside himself with excitement. Who acts: air, birds. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, with its 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, sentence 137

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Could he ever forget those beautiful, happy birds; and when at last they were out of his sight, he dived under the water, and rose again almost beside himself with excitement.

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**Who acts:** air, birds · **What happens:** forget, be, dive, rise · **To what, where:** beautiful happy birds, sight, water

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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 (air, birds), 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:pg27200:201:137
# text = Could he ever forget those beautiful, happy birds; and when at last they were out of his sight, he dived under the water, and rose again almost beside himself with excitement.
1	Could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	4	advmod	_	_
4	forget	forget	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
6	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
17	out	out	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	dived	dive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
24	under	under	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
30	again	again	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
32	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	29	obl	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	excitement	excitement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **forget** | could | air | that beautiful happy birds |  |  | ever |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | birds *= bird* |  |  | air's sight |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **dive** | past | air |  |  | the water |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent under water=Location |
| 4 | **rise** | past | air *not said here* |  |  |  | again | beside air; with excitement | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent beside himself=Location |

<!-- .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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