---
title: At length it froze so hard that the ice in the water crackled as he… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: At length it froze so hard that the ice in the water crackled as he moved, and the duckling had to paddle with his legs as well as he could, to keep the space from closing up. Who acts: space, ice, duckling. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling,
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, sentence 142

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At length it froze so hard that the ice in the water crackled as he moved, and the duckling had to paddle with his legs as well as he could, to keep the space from closing up.

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**Who acts:** space, ice, duckling · **What happens:** freeze, crackle, move, have, paddle, keep · **To what, where:** length, 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 (space, ice, duckling), 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:pg27200:201:142
# text = At length it froze so hard that the ice in the water crackled as he moved, and the duckling had to paddle with his legs as well as he could, to keep the space from closing up.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	froze	freeze	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	crackled	crackle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	advcl	_	_
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	moved	move	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	duckling	duckling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	paddle	paddle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	_
27	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADV	23	advmod	_	_
28	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	27	fixed	_	_
29	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	space	space	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
38	closing	close	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	34	advcl	_	_
39	up	up	ADP	RP	_	38	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **freeze** | past | space |  |  | length |  | hard *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **crackle** | participle | the ice in the water *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **move** | past | the ice in the water |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past | the duckling |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **paddle** | to-infinitive | the duckling *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with water's legs | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **keep** | to-infinitive | the duckling *not said here* | the space |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent space=Theme |
| 7 | **close up** | gerund | the duckling *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: 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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