---
title: The sails glittered like silver, and six swans, each with a golden c… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The sails glittered like silver, and six swans, each with a golden circlet round its neck, and a bright blue star on its forehead, drew the boat past the green wood, where the trees talked of robbers and witches, and the flowers of beautiful little elves and fairies, whose histories the butterflies 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/134/38/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/134/) / 38

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The sails glittered like silver, and six swans, each with a golden circlet round its neck, and a bright blue star on its forehead, drew the boat past the green wood, where the trees talked of robbers and witches, and the flowers of beautiful little elves and fairies, whose histories the butterflies had related to them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sails, trees · **What happens:** glitter, draw, talk, relate · **To what, where:** sails, boat, flowers, trees

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sails, trees), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:134:38
# text = The sails glittered like silver, and six swans, each with a golden circlet round its neck, and a bright blue star on its forehead, drew the boat past the green wood, where the trees talked of robbers and witches, and the flowers of beautiful little elves and fairies, whose histories the butterflies had related to them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sails	sail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
3	glittered	glitter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
4	like	like	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
8	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	swans	swan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	9	appos	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	circlet	circlet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
16	round	round	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
23	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	star	star	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	forehead	forehead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
29	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	past	past	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
37	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	40	advmod	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nsubj	_	_
40	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	conj	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	robbers	robber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	obl	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
44	witches	witch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	61	punct	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	61	cc	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	61	nsubj:pass	_	_
49	of	of	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
50	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	amod	_	_
51	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	amod	_	_
52	elves	elf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	48	nmod	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
54	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	52	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
56	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	57	nmod:poss	_	_
57	histories	history	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	52	conj	_	_
58	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
59	butterflies	butterfly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	52	conj	_	_
60	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	61	aux	_	_
61	related	relate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	conj	_	_
62	to	to	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
63	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	61	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **glitter** | participle |  | the sails *not said here* |  |  |  | like silver | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **draw** | past | the sails | the boat |  |  |  | past the green wood | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boat=Theme |
| 3 | **talk** | past | the trees |  |  |  |  | of robbers and witches | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **relate** | past · perfect · passive |  | the flowers of beautiful little elves and fairies and beautiful little elves and fairies and histories and the butterflies's histories and the butterflies | trees *= tree* |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Topic to they=Recipient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/134/37/)
- next →: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/134/39/)
- ↑ back to [Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/134/)