---
title: The monstrous snake which, it is said, surrounds the earth in the de… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The monstrous snake which, it is said, surrounds the earth in the depths of the ocean, was trembling in spasmodic convulsions. Who acts: monstrous snake. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 5, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 5, sentence 72

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The monstrous snake which, it is said, surrounds the earth in the depths of the ocean, was trembling in spasmodic convulsions.

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**Who acts:** monstrous snake · **What happens:** say, surround, tremble · **To what, where:** monstrous snake, earth, spasmodic convulsions · **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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (monstrous snake), 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:pg27200:87:72
# text = The monstrous snake which, it is said, surrounds the earth in the depths of the ocean, was trembling in spasmodic convulsions.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	monstrous	monstrous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
4	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	surrounds	surround	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	depths	depth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	ocean	ocean	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	trembling	tremble	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	spasmodic	spasmodic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	convulsions	convulsion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present · passive |  | the monstrous snake |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic |
| 2 | **surround** | present | the monstrous snake | the earth |  |  |  | in the depths of the ocean | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent earth=Destination in depth=Theme |
| 3 | **tremble** | past · progressive | the monstrous snake *not said here* |  |  | spasmodic convulsions |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in convulsion=Location |

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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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