---
title: But how could such a recipe be prepared--that was a difficulty they… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But how could such a recipe be prepared--that was a difficulty they could not overcome. Who acts: that, Inquiries. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 2, sentence 101

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But how could such a recipe be prepared--that was a difficulty they could not overcome.

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**Who acts:** that, Inquiries · **What happens:** prepare, be, not overcome · **To what, where:** recipe, difficulty

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (that, Inquiries), 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:pg27200:84:101
# text = But how could such a recipe be prepared--that was a difficulty they could not overcome.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
4	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	6	det:predet	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	recipe	recipe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	prepared	prepare	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	overcome	overcome	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prepare** | could · passive |  | such recipe |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **is a** | past | that | a difficulty |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **overcome** | could | Inquiries *= inquiry* | a difficulty *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot difficulty=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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