---
title: The waters of the Nile had retreated, and the whole bed of the river… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The waters of the Nile had retreated, and the whole bed of the river was covered with frogs, which was a most acceptable prospect for the stork families. Who acts: frogs. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 2, with its dependency 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 2, sentence 46

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The waters of the Nile had retreated, and the whole bed of the river was covered with frogs, which was a most acceptable prospect for the stork families.

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**Who acts:** frogs · **What happens:** retreat, cover, be · **To what, where:** waters, whole bed, acceptable prospect

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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 (frogs), 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:pg27200:84:46
# text = The waters of the Nile had retreated, and the whole bed of the river was covered with frogs, which was a most acceptable prospect for the stork families.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Nile	Nile	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	retreated	retreat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	frogs	frog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	25	advmod	_	_
25	acceptable	acceptable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	prospect	prospect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	stork	stork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	families	family	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **retreat** | past · perfect · passive |  | the waters of the Nile |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V NP.extent PP.source PP.goal»: subject=Extent |
| 2 | **cover** | past · passive |  | the whole bed of the river |  |  |  | with frogs | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Destination with frog=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | past | frogs | a acceptable prospect |  |  |  | for the stork families | tree rules |

<!-- .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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