---
title: The other ducks liked much better to swim about in the river than to… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The other ducks liked much better to swim about in the river than to climb the slippery banks, and sit under a burdock leaf, to have a gossip with her. Who acts: other ducks. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, sentence 8

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The other ducks liked much better to swim about in the river than to climb the slippery banks, and sit under a burdock leaf, to have a gossip with her.

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**Who acts:** other ducks · **What happens:** like, swim, climb, sit, have · **To what, where:** slippery banks, burdock leaf, gossip

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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 (other ducks), 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:pg27200:201:8
# text = The other ducks liked much better to swim about in the river than to climb the slippery banks, and sit under a burdock leaf, to have a gossip with her.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	ducks	duck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	liked	like	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	much	much	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	ccomp	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	csubj	_	_
9	about	about	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	climb	climb	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	slippery	slippery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	banks	bank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
22	under	under	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	burdock	burdock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	gossip	gossip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	with	with	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **like** | past | the other ducks |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 2 | **swim** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | about the river | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about river=Trajectory |
| 3 | **climb** | to-infinitive |  | the slippery banks |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location bank=Theme |
| 4 | **sit** | infinitive |  |  |  | a burdock leaf |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent under leaf=Location |
| 5 | **have** | to-infinitive |  | a gossip |  |  |  | with duck | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gossip=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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