---
title: See, children, that is the way of the world," said the mother duck,… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: See, children, that is the way of the world," said the mother duck, whetting her beak, for she would have liked the eel's head herself. " Who acts: you, that, mother duck, duck. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
See, children, that is the way of the world," said the mother duck, whetting her beak, for she would have liked the eel's head herself. "

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, that, mother duck, duck · **What happens:** see, be, say, whet, like · **To what, where:** children, way, mother duck, beak, head · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (you, that, mother duck, duck), 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:pg27200:201:41
# text = See, children, that is the way of the world," said the mother duck, whetting her beak, for she would have liked the eel's head herself. "
1	See	see	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	nsubj	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	whetting	whet	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
20	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	beak	beak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	aux	_	_
27	liked	like	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	eel	eel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	's	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	_
31	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
32	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
34	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | imperative | you *not said here* | children |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is a** | present | that | the way |  |  |  | of the world | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past |  | the mother duck |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent duck=Topic |
| 4 | **whet** *in a quote* | gerund | the mother duck *not said here* | duck's beak |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **like** *in a quote* | would · perfect | duck | the eel's head |  |  |  | duck *obl* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot head=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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