---
title: "The others are very pretty children," said the old duck, with the r… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "The others are very pretty children," said the old duck, with the rag on her leg, "all but that one; I wish his mother could improve him a little." Who acts: others, pretty children, mother. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, with its depend
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, sentence 49

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"The others are very pretty children," said the old duck, with the rag on her leg, "all but that one; I wish his mother could improve him a little."

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**Who acts:** others, pretty children, mother · **What happens:** be, say, wish, improve · **To what, where:** pretty children, old duck, child · **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 (others, pretty children, mother), 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:pg27200:201:49
# text = "The others are very pretty children," said the old duck, with the rag on her leg, "all but that one; I wish his mother could improve him a little."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	rag	rag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	leg	leg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	conj	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
32	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	improve	improve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	ccomp	_	_
34	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the others | pretty children |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | pretty children | the old duck and the rag on duck's leg |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **wish** *in a quote* | present | pretty children *= child* |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **improve** *in a quote* | could | child's mother | child |  |  |  | a little *obl:unmarked* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent he=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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