---
title: The most icy water could not deter him from swimming; he could twist… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The most icy water could not deter him from swimming; he could twist and turn like a fish. Who acts: icy water, Rudy. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, IV. Babette, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, IV. Babette, sentence 10

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The most icy water could not deter him from swimming; he could twist and turn like a fish.

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**Who acts:** icy water, Rudy · **What happens:** not deter, swim, twist, turn · **To what, where:** Rudy

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, IV. Babette. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (icy water, Rudy), 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:pg27200:55:10
# text = The most icy water could not deter him from swimming; he could twist and turn like a fish.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	3	advmod	_	_
3	icy	icy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	deter	deter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
10	swimming	swim	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	twist	twist	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
17	like	like	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **deter** | could | the icy water | Rudy |  |  |  |  | vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer he=Eventuality |
| 2 | **swim** | gerund | the icy water *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **twist** | could | Rudy |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **turn** | infinitive | Rudy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like a fish | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |

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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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