---
title: The mother was like a fountain of questions; and the daughter, who l… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The mother was like a fountain of questions; and the daughter, who listened but never spoke, might have passed for the beautiful maid of the fountain. Who acts: mother, daughter. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Beauty of Form and Beauty of Mind, with its dep
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Beauty of Form and Beauty of Mind, sentence 18

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The mother was like a fountain of questions; and the daughter, who listened but never spoke, might have passed for the beautiful maid of the fountain.

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**Who acts:** mother, daughter · **What happens:** be, listen, not speak, pass · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Beauty of Form and Beauty of Mind. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mother, daughter), 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:pg27200:7:18
# text = The mother was like a fountain of questions; and the daughter, who listened but never spoke, might have passed for the beautiful maid of the fountain.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	like	like	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	fountain	fountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux	_	_
22	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	maid	maid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	fountain	fountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the mother |  |  |  |  | like a fountain and the daughter; of questions | tree rules |
| 2 | **listen** | past | the daughter |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **speak** *speech: other* | past | the daughter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **pass** | might · perfect | the mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the beautiful maid of the fountain | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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