---
title: He was such a little wee thing, that no human eye could see him. — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He was such a little wee thing, that no human eye could see him. Who acts: prettiest, human eye. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Elf of the Rose, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Elf of the Rose, sentence 2

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He was such a little wee thing, that no human eye could see him.

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**Who acts:** prettiest, human eye · **What happens:** be, see · **To what, where:** little wee thing, prettiest

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Elf of the Rose. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prettiest, human eye), 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:pg27200:30:2
# text = He was such a little wee thing, that no human eye could see him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
3	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	7	det:predet	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	wee	wee	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
10	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	12	det	_	_
11	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | prettiest *= pretty* | such little wee thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | could | no human eye | prettiest *= pretty* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |

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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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