--- title: These hideous creatures took off their rags, as if they intended to… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics description: These hideous creatures took off their rags, as if they intended to bathe, and then clawing open the fresh graves with their long, skinny fingers, pulled out the dead bodies and ate the flesh! Who acts: hideous creatures, creatures, long skinny fingers. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian A --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/209/124/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Wild Swans, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/209/) / 124 # Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2, sentence 124 These hideous creatures took off their rags, as if they intended to bathe, and then clawing open the fresh graves with their long, skinny fingers, pulled out the dead bodies and ate the flesh! **Who acts:** hideous creatures, creatures, long skinny fingers · **What happens:** take off, intend, bathe, claw, open, pull out · **To what, where:** rags, fresh graves, dead bodies, flesh This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hideous creatures, creatures, long skinny fingers), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg27200:209:124 # text = These hideous creatures took off their rags, as if they intended to bathe, and then clawing open the fresh graves with their long, skinny fingers, pulled out the dead bodies and ate the flesh! 1 These this DET DT Number=Plur|PronType=Dem 3 det _ _ 2 hideous hideous ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 3 amod _ _ 3 creatures creature NOUN NNS Number=Plur 4 nsubj _ _ 4 took take VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 off off ADP RP _ 4 compound:prt _ _ 6 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 7 nmod:poss _ _ 7 rags rag NOUN NNS Number=Plur 4 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 12 punct _ _ 9 as as SCONJ IN _ 12 mark _ _ 10 if if SCONJ IN _ 12 mark _ _ 11 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 12 nsubj _ _ 12 intended intend VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 13 to to PART TO _ 14 mark _ _ 14 bathe bathe VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 12 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 15 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 16 and and CCONJ CC _ 18 cc _ _ 17 then then ADV RB PronType=Dem 18 advmod _ _ 18 clawing claw VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 4 advcl _ _ 19 open open VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 18 xcomp _ _ 20 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 22 det _ _ 21 fresh fresh ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 22 amod _ _ 22 graves grave NOUN NNS Number=Plur 19 obj _ _ 23 with with ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 24 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 28 nmod:poss _ _ 25 long long ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 28 amod _ SpaceAfter=No 26 , , PUNCT , _ 25 punct _ _ 27 skinny skinny ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 28 amod _ _ 28 fingers finger NOUN NNS Number=Plur 19 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 29 , , PUNCT , _ 30 punct _ _ 30 pulled pull VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 28 acl _ _ 31 out out ADP RP _ 30 compound:prt _ _ 32 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 34 det _ _ 33 dead dead ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 34 amod _ _ 34 bodies body NOUN NNS Number=Plur 30 obj _ _ 35 and and CCONJ CC _ 36 cc _ _ 36 ate eat VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 37 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 38 det _ _ 38 flesh flesh NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 39 ! ! PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **take off** | past | this hideous creatures | creatures's rags | | | | | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rag=Theme | | 2 | **intend** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | creatures *= creature* | | | | | | vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 3 | **bathe** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | creatures *= creature* *not said here* | | | | | | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **claw** | gerund | this hideous creatures *not said here* | | | | then | | tree rules | | 5 | **open** | infinitive | this hideous creatures *not said here* | the fresh graves | | | | with creatures's long skinny fingers | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent grave=Patient with finger=Instrument | | 6 | **pull out** | participle | creatures's long skinny fingers *not said here* | the dead bodies | | | | | tree rules | | 7 | **eat** | past | this hideous creatures *not said here* | the flesh | | | | | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flesh=Patient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 123](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/209/123/) - next →: [sentence 125](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/209/125/) - ↑ back to [The Wild Swans, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/209/)