---
title: All around him he could see the prettiest little elves dancing in th… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: All around him he could see the prettiest little elves dancing in the moonlight, which shone through the trees. Who acts: man, prettiest little elves, moonlight. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1, with its dependency tree and t
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/196/69/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Travelling Companion, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/196/) / 69

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
All around him he could see the prettiest little elves dancing in the moonlight, which shone through the trees.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, prettiest little elves, moonlight · **What happens:** see, dance, shine · **To what, where:** prettiest little elves, moonlight, trees

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, 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 (man, prettiest little elves, moonlight), 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:pg27200:196:69
# text = All around him he could see the prettiest little elves dancing in the moonlight, which shone through the trees.
1	All	all	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	around	around	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	nmod	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	prettiest	pretty	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	10	amod	_	_
9	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	elves	elf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
11	dancing	dance	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	acl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	moonlight	moonlight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	shone	shine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
18	through	through	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | could | man | the prettiest little elves |  |  |  | all *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer elf=Stimulus |
| 2 | **dance** | gerund | the prettiest little elves *not said here* |  |  | the moonlight |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in moonlight=Location |
| 3 | **shine** | past | the moonlight |  |  | the trees |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through tree=Location |

<!-- .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 68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/196/68/)
- next →: [sentence 70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/196/70/)
- ↑ back to [The Travelling Companion, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/196/)