---
title: This linen holds the water together so beautifully, that my hind leg… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: This linen holds the water together so beautifully, that my hind legs quiver as if I were going to swim." Who acts: linen, hind legs, I. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Beetle Who Went on His Travels, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Beetle Who Went on His Travels, sentence 48

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This linen holds the water together so beautifully, that my hind legs quiver as if I were going to swim."

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**Who acts:** linen, hind legs, I · **What happens:** hold, quiver, go, swim · **To what, where:** water

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Beetle Who Went on His Travels. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (linen, hind legs, I), 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:pg27200:8:48
# text = This linen holds the water together so beautifully, that my hind legs quiver as if I were going to swim."
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	linen	linen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	holds	hold	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	together	together	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
7	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	beautifully	beautifully	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	hind	hind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
14	quiver	quiver	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	ccomp	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	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 | **hold** | present | this linen | the water |  |  |  | beautifully, together *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Theme |
| 2 | **quiver** | present | my hind legs |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **go** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · progressive | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **swim** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP 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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