---
title: The woman screamed, and struck at him with the tongs; the children l… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The woman screamed, and struck at him with the tongs; the children laughed and screamed, and tumbled over each other, in their efforts to catch him; but luckily he escaped. Who acts: woman, children, warmth. 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 150

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The woman screamed, and struck at him with the tongs; the children laughed and screamed, and tumbled over each other, in their efforts to catch him; but luckily he escaped.

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**Who acts:** woman, children, warmth · **What happens:** scream, strike, laugh, tumble, catch, escape · **To what, where:** each, warmth

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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 (woman, children, warmth), 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:pg27200:201:150
# text = The woman screamed, and struck at him with the tongs; the children laughed and screamed, and tumbled over each other, in their efforts to catch him; but luckily he escaped.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	screamed	scream	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	tongs	tong	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	screamed	scream	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	tumbled	tumble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	conj	_	_
21	over	over	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	20	obl	_	_
23	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	efforts	effort	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
32	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
33	luckily	luckily	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	escaped	escape	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scream** *speech: express* | past | the woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **strike** | past | the woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at warmth; with the tongs | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP PP»: agent=Agent at he=Patient with tong=Instrument |
| 3 | **laugh** | past | the children |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **scream** *speech: express* | past | the children *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **tumble** | participle | the children *not said here* |  |  | each |  | in tongs's efforts | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in effort=Attribute |
| 6 | **catch** | to-infinitive | the children *not said here* | warmth |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 7 | **escape** | past | warmth |  |  |  |  | luckily *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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