---
title: But they went too far, and of eight daughters only three came back t… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But they went too far, and of eight daughters only three came back to the mother, and these wept and said, 'We only went a little way out, and the ugly eel-spearer came immediately and stabbed five of our sisters to death.' ' Who acts: eels, these, We, ugly eel spearer. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 2, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But they went too far, and of eight daughters only three came back to the mother, and these wept and said, 'We only went a little way out, and the ugly eel-spearer came immediately and stabbed five of our sisters to death.' '

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**Who acts:** eels, these, We, ugly eel spearer · **What happens:** go, come back, weep, say, come, stab · **To what, where:** mother, little way, five · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eels, these, We, ugly eel spearer), 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:pg27200:159:42
# text = But they went too far, and of eight daughters only three came back to the mother, and these wept and said, 'We only went a little way out, and the ugly eel-spearer came immediately and stabbed five of our sisters to death.' '
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	too	too	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	eight	eight	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	daughters	daughter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
11	only	only	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nmod	_	_
13	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
14	back	back	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	21	nsubj	_	_
21	wept	weep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	only	only	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	ccomp	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	out	out	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
36	ugly	ugly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
37	eel	eel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	spearer	spearer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nsubj	_	_
40	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
41	immediately	immediately	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
43	stabbed	stab	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	conj	_	_
44	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	43	obj	_	_
45	of	of	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
46	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	47	nmod:poss	_	_
47	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	nmod	_	_
48	to	to	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
49	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
52	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | eels *= eel* |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **come back** | past | eels *= eel* *not said here* |  | the mother |  |  | of eight daughters  three | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme of daughter=Initial\_Location to mother=Destination |
| 3 | **weep** | past | these |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | these *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **go** | past | We | a little way |  |  |  | out *property* | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location way=Theme |
| 6 | **come** | past | the ugly eel spearer |  |  |  |  | immediately *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **stab** | past | the ugly eel spearer *not said here* | five of our sisters |  |  |  | to death *result* | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent five=Patient to death=Result |

<!-- .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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