---
title: The worm crawled forth from the moist ground, and the moles crept ou… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The worm crawled forth from the moist ground, and the moles crept out; but, excepting these, all around had the stillness of death: but when people say this, they do not quite understand themselves what they mean. Who acts: worm, moles, people. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 4, sentence 68

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The worm crawled forth from the moist ground, and the moles crept out; but, excepting these, all around had the stillness of death: but when people say this, they do not quite understand themselves what they mean.

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**Who acts:** worm, moles, people · **What happens:** crawl, creep out, except, have, say, not understand · **To what, where:** moist ground, these, stillness, this, people · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (worm, moles, people), 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:pg27200:86:68
# text = The worm crawled forth from the moist ground, and the moles crept out; but, excepting these, all around had the stillness of death: but when people say this, they do not quite understand themselves what they mean.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	worm	worm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	crawled	crawl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	moist	moist	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	moles	mole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
14	out	out	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	excepting	except	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
19	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	all	all	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	around	around	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
23	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	stillness	stillness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	39	punct	_	_
29	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
30	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	32	advmod	_	_
31	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	_
32	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	39	advcl	_	_
33	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
35	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
36	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
37	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	39	advmod	_	_
38	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
40	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	39	obj	_	_
41	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	43	obj	_	_
42	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
43	mean	mean	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	39	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **crawl** | past | the worm |  |  | the moist ground |  | forth *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from ground=Trajectory |
| 2 | **creep out** | past | the moles |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **except** | gerund |  | these |  |  |  | around *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | past |  | the stillness of death |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stillness=Patient |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | people | this |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent this=Topic |
| 6 | **not** **understand** | present · do-support | people | people |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **mean** | present | moles *= mole* |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic |

<!-- .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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