---
title: The prince sat in the centre of the ship, and had only to touch a sp… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The prince sat in the centre of the ship, and had only to touch a spring in order to make thousands of bullets fly out in all directions, while the guns were at once loaded again. Who acts: prince, thousands. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wicked Prince
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wicked Prince, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The prince sat in the centre of the ship, and had only to touch a spring in order to make thousands of bullets fly out in all directions, while the guns were at once loaded again.

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**Who acts:** prince, thousands · **What happens:** sit, have, touch, make, fly out, load · **To what, where:** centre, order, directions, guns

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wicked Prince. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prince, thousands), 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:pg27200:207:18
# text = The prince sat in the centre of the ship, and had only to touch a spring in order to make thousands of bullets fly out in all directions, while the guns were at once loaded again.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	centre	centre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	only	only	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	spring	spring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
22	thousands	thousand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	bullets	bullet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
25	fly	fly	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	parataxis	_	_
26	out	out	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	29	det	_	_
29	directions	direction	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
31	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	guns	gun	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	nsubj:pass	_	_
34	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux:pass	_	_
35	at	at	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	37	obl	_	_
37	loaded	load	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	conj	_	_
38	again	again	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | the prince |  |  | the centre of the ship |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in centre=Location |
| 2 | **have** | past | the prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **touch** | to-infinitive | the prince *not said here* |  |  | order | spring |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **make** | to-infinitive | the prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 5 | **fly out** | present | thousands of bullets |  |  | all directions |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in direction=Location |
| 6 | **load** | past · passive |  | the guns |  |  | again |  | vn spray-9.7-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme at once=Destination |

<!-- .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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