---
title: Only a practised eye could discern the vessel out in the offing; she… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Only a practised eye could discern the vessel out in the offing; she was a fine brig, and the waves now lifted her over the reef, three or four cables' length out of the usual channel. Who acts: practised eye, ocean, waves. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/158/95/)

<!-- 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/) / [A Story From the Sand-hills, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/158/) / 95

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 1, sentence 95

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Only a practised eye could discern the vessel out in the offing; she was a fine brig, and the waves now lifted her over the reef, three or four cables' length out of the usual channel.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** practised eye, ocean, waves · **What happens:** practise, discern out, be, lift · **To what, where:** vessel, offing, fine brig, ocean, reef

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (practised eye, ocean, waves), 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:pg27200:158:95
# text = Only a practised eye could discern the vessel out in the offing; she was a fine brig, and the waves now lifted her over the reef, three or four cables' length out of the usual channel.
1	Only	only	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	practised	practise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	amod	_	_
4	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	discern	discern	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	offing	offing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	brig	brig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
23	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
24	lifted	lift	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
25	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	over	over	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	reef	reef	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	nummod	_	_
31	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	conj	_	_
33	cables	cable	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	'	's	PART	POS	_	33	case	_	_
35	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
36	out	out	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	usual	usual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	channel	channel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **practise** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **discern out** | could | a practised eye | the vessel |  | the offing |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer vessel=Stimulus |
| 3 | **is a** | past | ocean | a fine brig |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **lift** | past | the waves | ocean |  | the reef | now | out the usual channel | tree rules |

<!-- .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 94](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/158/94/)
- next →: [sentence 96](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/158/96/)
- ↑ back to [A Story From the Sand-hills, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/158/)