---
title: A crab clambered over him, looking like a gigantic spider, while the… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: A crab clambered over him, looking like a gigantic spider, while the shrimps wandered about in restless haste, like the butterflies and moths of the sea. Who acts: crab, shrimps. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Dryad, part 3, with its dependency tree and
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Dryad, part 3, sentence 86

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A crab clambered over him, looking like a gigantic spider, while the shrimps wandered about in restless haste, like the butterflies and moths of the sea.

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**Who acts:** crab, shrimps · **What happens:** clamber, look, wander

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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 (crab, shrimps), 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:pg27200:26:86
# text = A crab clambered over him, looking like a gigantic spider, while the shrimps wandered about in restless haste, like the butterflies and moths of the sea.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	crab	crab	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	clambered	clamber	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	over	over	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	gigantic	gigantic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	spider	spider	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	shrimps	shrimp	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	wandered	wander	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	about	about	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	restless	restless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	haste	haste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	like	like	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	butterflies	butterfly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	moths	moth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	conj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **clamber** | past | a crab |  |  |  |  | over turbot | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over he=Trajectory |
| 2 | **look** | gerund | a crab *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like a gigantic spider | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **wander** | past | the shrimps |  |  |  |  | about restless haste; like the butterflies and moths of the sea | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about haste=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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