---
title: They were misshapen, wretched-looking creatures, with yellow complex… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They were misshapen, wretched-looking creatures, with yellow complexions; and on their necks were dark, ugly lumps of flesh, hanging down like bags. Who acts: men, necks. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, II. the Journey to the New Home, with its dependency tr
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, II. the Journey to the New Home, sentence 66

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They were misshapen, wretched-looking creatures, with yellow complexions; and on their necks were dark, ugly lumps of flesh, hanging down like bags.

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**Who acts:** men, necks · **What happens:** be, look, hang down · **To what, where:** creatures

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, II. the Journey to the New Home. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, necks), 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:pg27200:53:66
# text = They were misshapen, wretched-looking creatures, with yellow complexions; and on their necks were dark, ugly lumps of flesh, hanging down like bags.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	misshapen	misshapen	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	wretched	wretched	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
8	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	complexions	complexion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	necks	neck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	ugly	ugly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	lumps	lump	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	flesh	flesh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	hanging	hang	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	parataxis	_	_
27	down	down	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
28	like	like	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	bags	bag	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	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 | **is** | past | men *= man* |  |  |  |  | misshapen *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **look** | gerund | men *= man* *not said here* | creatures and yellow complexions |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme creature=Attribute |
| 3 | **is** | past | men's necks |  |  |  |  | ugly lumps of flesh *obl*; dark *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **hang down** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | like bags | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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