---
title: The winter grew colder and colder; he was obliged to swim about on t… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The winter grew colder and colder; he was obliged to swim about on the water to keep it from freezing, but every night the space on which he swam became smaller and smaller. Who acts: winter, air, space. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, wit
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, sentence 141

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The winter grew colder and colder; he was obliged to swim about on the water to keep it from freezing, but every night the space on which he swam became smaller and smaller.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** winter, air, space · **What happens:** grow, oblige, swim, keep, become · **To what, where:** air, water, creature, freezing, space

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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 (winter, air, space), 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:pg27200:201:141
# text = The winter grew colder and colder; he was obliged to swim about on the water to keep it from freezing, but every night the space on which he swam became smaller and smaller.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	colder	cold	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	colder	cold	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	about	about	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	freezing	freezing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
24	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	25	det	_	_
25	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl:unmarked	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	space	space	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
28	on	on	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	obl	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	swam	swim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	acl:relcl	_	_
32	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
33	smaller	small	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	32	xcomp	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	smaller	small	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past | the winter |  |  |  |  | cold *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **oblige** | past · passive |  | air |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 3 | **swim** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | the water |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on water=Trajectory |
| 4 | **keep** | to-infinitive |  | creature |  | freezing |  |  | vn forbid-64.4 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer it=Beneficiary from freezing=Eventuality |
| 5 | **swim** | past | air |  |  | the space |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on which=Trajectory |
| 6 | **become** | past | the space |  |  |  | night | small *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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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