---
title: They entered the ships and the prince was approaching his own, when… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They entered the ships and the prince was approaching his own, when God sent a swarm of gnats--one swarm of little gnats. Who acts: warriors, prince, God. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wicked Prince, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wicked Prince, sentence 28

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They entered the ships and the prince was approaching his own, when God sent a swarm of gnats--one swarm of little gnats.

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**Who acts:** warriors, prince, God · **What happens:** enter, approach, send · **To what, where:** ships, own, swarm

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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 (warriors, prince, God), 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:pg27200:207:28
# text = They entered the ships and the prince was approaching his own, when God sent a swarm of gnats--one swarm of little gnats.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	entered	enter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	15	mark	_	_
14	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	swarm	swarm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	gnats	gnat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	swarm	swarm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	gnats	gnat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **enter** | past | warriors *= warrior* | the ships |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme ship=Destination |
| 2 | **approach** | past · progressive | the prince | prince's own |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent own=Theme |
| 3 | **send** | past | God | a swarm of gnats and one swarm of little gnats |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent swarm=Theme |

<!-- .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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