---
title: They approach the caravan; the young merchant sits pensive and motio… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They approach the caravan; the young merchant sits pensive and motionless, thinking of his beautiful wife, dreaming, in the land of the blacks, of his white lily beyond the desert. Who acts: negroes, young merchant. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twentieth 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Twentieth Evening, sentence 21

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They approach the caravan; the young merchant sits pensive and motionless, thinking of his beautiful wife, dreaming, in the land of the blacks, of his white lily beyond the desert.

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**Who acts:** negroes, young merchant · **What happens:** approach, sit, think, dream · **To what, where:** caravan, land

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twentieth Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (negroes, young merchant), 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:pg27200:111:21
# text = They approach the caravan; the young merchant sits pensive and motionless, thinking of his beautiful wife, dreaming, in the land of the blacks, of his white lily beyond the desert.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	approach	approach	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	caravan	caravan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	sits	sit	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	pensive	pensive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	motionless	motionless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	dreaming	dream	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	blacks	black	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
31	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	lily	lily	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
33	beyond	beyond	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	desert	desert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **approach** | present | negroes *= negro* | the caravan |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent caravan=Theme |
| 2 | **sit** | present | the young merchant |  |  |  |  | pensive *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund | the young merchant *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of lion's beautiful wife | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **dream** | gerund | the young merchant *not said here* |  |  | the land of the blacks |  | of lion's white lily beyond the desert | vn cognize-85 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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