---
title: He thrust his nose close to the duckling, showing his sharp teeth, a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He thrust his nose close to the duckling, showing his sharp teeth, and then, "splash, splash," he went into the water without touching him, "Oh," sighed the duckling, "how thankful I am for being so ugly; even a dog will not bite me." Who acts: tongue, dog. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christi
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, sentence 81

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He thrust his nose close to the duckling, showing his sharp teeth, and then, "splash, splash," he went into the water without touching him, "Oh," sighed the duckling, "how thankful I am for being so ugly; even a dog will not bite me."

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**Who acts:** tongue, dog · **What happens:** thrust, show, go, touch, sigh, be · **To what, where:** nose, sharp teeth, water, tongue, duckling, cat · **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 (tongue, dog), 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:pg27200:201:81
# text = He thrust his nose close to the duckling, showing his sharp teeth, and then, "splash, splash," he went into the water without touching him, "Oh," sighed the duckling, "how thankful I am for being so ugly; even a dog will not bite me."
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thrust	thrust	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	duckling	duckling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	showing	show	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
16	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	splash	splash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	splash	splash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
26	into	into	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
30	touching	touch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	advcl	_	_
31	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
33	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	37	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	37	punct	_	_
37	sighed	sigh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	duckling	duckling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
41	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	43	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	43	advmod	_	_
43	thankful	thankful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	parataxis	_	_
44	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
45	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	43	cop	_	_
46	for	for	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
47	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	49	cop	_	_
48	so	so	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	_
49	ugly	ugly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	56	punct	_	_
51	even	even	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	_
52	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	nsubj	_	_
54	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	56	aux	_	_
55	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	56	advmod	_	_
56	bite	bite	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
57	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	56	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	56	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	56	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **thrust** | past | tongue | tongue's nose |  |  |  | close *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **show** | gerund | tongue *not said here* | tongue's sharp teeth |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent tooth=Recipient |
| 3 | **go** | past | tongue |  |  | the water | then |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into water=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **touch** | gerund | tongue *not said here* | tongue |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme he=Co-Theme |
| 5 | **sigh** | past | tongue *not said here* | the duckling |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  | thankful *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **is** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | ugly *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **not** **bite** *in a quote* | future | a dog | cat |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |

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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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