---
title: The sea was still rough, and from their high position in the air, th… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The sea was still rough, and from their high position in the air, the white foam on the dark green waves looked like millions of swans swimming on the water. Who acts: sea, white foam, swans. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2, with its d
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The sea was still rough, and from their high position in the air, the white foam on the dark green waves looked like millions of swans swimming on the water.

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**Who acts:** sea, white foam, swans · **What happens:** be, look, swim · **To what, where:** water

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, 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 (sea, white foam, swans), 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:pg27200:209:39
# text = The sea was still rough, and from their high position in the air, the white foam on the dark green waves looked like millions of swans swimming on the water.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	still	still	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	rough	rough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
8	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	position	position	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	foam	foam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
22	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
24	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
25	like	like	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	millions	million	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	swans	swan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	_
29	swimming	swim	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	28	acl	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the sea |  |  |  | still | rough *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **look** | past | the white foam on the dark green waves |  |  |  |  | like millions of swans; from swans's high position in the air | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent from position=Theme |
| 3 | **swim** | gerund | swans *not said here* |  |  | the water |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on water=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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