---
title: I saw how he looked at his pale face in the glass, with eyes half cl… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I saw how he looked at his pale face in the glass, with eyes half closed, to see if he should look well as a corpse. Who acts: I, hero, eyes half. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Eighteenth Evening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Eighteenth Evening, sentence 13

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I saw how he looked at his pale face in the glass, with eyes half closed, to see if he should look well as a corpse.

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**Who acts:** I, hero, eyes half · **What happens:** see, look, close · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Eighteenth Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, hero, eyes half), 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:pg27200:109:13
# text = I saw how he looked at his pale face in the glass, with eyes half closed, to see if he should look well as a corpse.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	pale	pale	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	glass	glass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	compound	_	_
16	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	17	nsubj	_	_
17	closed	close	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	see	see	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
25	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	24	advmod	_	_
26	as	as	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	corpse	corpse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **look** | past | hero |  |  |  |  | in the glass; at hero's pale face | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at face=Theme |
| 3 | **close** | participle | eyes half |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **look** *a condition, not said to happen* | should | hero |  |  |  |  | as a corpse; well *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

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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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