---
title: They often warned him to beware of the sharks, which seize the best… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They often warned him to beware of the sharks, which seize the best swimmer, draw him down, and devour him; but such was not to be Jurgen's fate. Who acts: people, sharks. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 3, with its dependen
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/160/41/)

<!-- 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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/160/) / 41

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 3, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They often warned him to beware of the sharks, which seize the best swimmer, draw him down, and devour him; but such was not to be Jurgen's fate.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, sharks · **What happens:** warn, beware, seize, draw down, devour, not be · **To what, where:** Jurgen, best swimmer, such fate

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, sharks), 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:pg27200:160:41
# text = They often warned him to beware of the sharks, which seize the best swimmer, draw him down, and devour him; but such was not to be Jurgen's fate.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	often	often	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	warned	warn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	beware	beware	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	sharks	shark	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	seize	seize	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	amod	_	_
15	swimmer	swimmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	draw	draw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	down	down	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	devour	devour	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
26	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	33	advmod	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	cop	_	_
31	Jurgen	Jurgen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	's	's	PART	POS	_	31	case	_	_
33	fate	fate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **warn** *speech: warn* | past | people |  | Jurgen |  |  | often *property* | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP how S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **beware** | to-infinitive | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of the sharks | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **seize** | present | the sharks | the best swimmer |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent swimmer=Theme |
| 4 | **draw down** | infinitive | people *not said here* | Jurgen |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 5 | **devour** | infinitive | people *not said here* | Jurgen |  |  |  |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 6 | **not** **is a** | past |  | Jurgen's such fate |  |  |  |  | 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 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/160/40/)
- next →: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/160/42/)
- ↑ back to [A Story From the Sand-hills, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/160/)