---
title: Thus the fishes gossipped in their own way; but in the artificial wa… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Thus the fishes gossipped in their own way; but in the artificial water-grotto the laborers were busy; who were obliged to take advantage of the hours of night to get their work done by daybreak. Who acts: fishes, work. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Dr
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Dryad, part 3, sentence 118

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Thus the fishes gossipped in their own way; but in the artificial water-grotto the laborers were busy; who were obliged to take advantage of the hours of night to get their work done by daybreak.

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**Who acts:** fishes, work · **What happens:** gossipp, be, oblige, take, get, do · **To what, where:** fishes, own way, artificial water grotto, advantage, work

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Dryad, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fishes, work), 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:pg27200:26:118
# text = Thus the fishes gossipped in their own way; but in the artificial water-grotto the laborers were busy; who were obliged to take advantage of the hours of night to get their work done by daybreak.
1	Thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	fishes	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
4	gossipped	gossipp	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
13	artificial	artificial	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
14	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	grotto	grotto	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	laborers	laborer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	advantage	advantage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	advcl	_	_
35	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	xcomp	_	_
38	by	by	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	daybreak	daybreak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **gossipp** | participle |  | the fishes *not said here* |  | fishes's own way |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the fishes |  |  | the artificial water grotto |  | busy *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **oblige** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 4 | **take** | to-infinitive |  | advantage |  |  | hour |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent advantage=Theme |
| 5 | **get** | to-infinitive |  | fishes's work |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **do** | participle | fishes's work *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by daybreak | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **work** |  | fishes *= fish* |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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