---
title: Then they rubbed the corners of their mouths with fish-oil, so that… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then they rubbed the corners of their mouths with fish-oil, so that they might become very smooth and glib. Who acts: laws. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, An Old Story Told Anew, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, An Old Story Told Anew, sentence 11

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Then they rubbed the corners of their mouths with fish-oil, so that they might become very smooth and glib.

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**Who acts:** laws · **What happens:** rub, become · **To what, where:** corners

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, An Old Story Told Anew. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (laws), 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:pg27200:28:11
# text = Then they rubbed the corners of their mouths with fish-oil, so that they might become very smooth and glib.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	rubbed	rub	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	corners	corner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	mouths	mouth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	oil	oil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	18	mark	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	fixed	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
19	very	very	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	smooth	smooth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	glib	glib	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rub** | past | laws *= law* | the corners of laws's mouths with fish oil |  |  | then |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent corner=Theme |
| 2 | **become** | might | laws *= law* |  |  |  |  | smooth *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=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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