---
title: "Oh," said the mother, "that is not a turkey; how well he uses his l… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Oh," said the mother, "that is not a turkey; how well he uses his legs, and how upright he holds himself! Who acts: mother, that, water. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, sentence 37

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"Oh," said the mother, "that is not a turkey; how well he uses his legs, and how upright he holds himself!

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**Who acts:** mother, that, water · **What happens:** say, not be, use, hold · **To what, where:** turkey, legs, water · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (mother, that, water), 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:pg27200:201:37
# text = "Oh," said the mother, "that is not a turkey; how well he uses his legs, and how upright he holds himself!
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	turkey	turkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
17	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	19	advmod	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	uses	use	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
25	upright	upright	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	holds	hold	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
28	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: express* | past | the mother and a turkey |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **is a** *in a quote* | present | that | a turkey |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **use** *in a quote* | present | water | water's legs |  |  |  | well *property* | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leg=Patient |
| 4 | **hold** *in a quote* | present | water | water |  |  |  | upright *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=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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