---
title: The merman and his daughter must be invited first, although it may n… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The merman and his daughter must be invited first, although it may not be agreeable to them to remain so long on dry land, but they shall have a wet stone to sit on, or perhaps something better; so I think they will not refuse this time. Who acts: company, merman, I. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Ha
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Elfin Hill, sentence 18

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The merman and his daughter must be invited first, although it may not be agreeable to them to remain so long on dry land, but they shall have a wet stone to sit on, or perhaps something better; so I think they will not refuse this time.

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**Who acts:** company, merman, I · **What happens:** invite, not be, remain, have, sit on, think · **To what, where:** merman, dry land, wet stone · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Elfin Hill. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (company, merman, I), 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:pg27200:31:18
# text = The merman and his daughter must be invited first, although it may not be agreeable to them to remain so long on dry land, but they shall have a wet stone to sit on, or perhaps something better; so I think they will not refuse this time.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	merman	merman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
6	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	invited	invite	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
13	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	cop	_	_
16	agreeable	agreeable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	remain	remain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	20	advmod	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	acl	_	_
36	on	on	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
38	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
39	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	35	conj	_	_
41	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	40	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
43	so	so	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	_
44	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
45	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
46	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
47	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	49	aux	_	_
48	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	49	advmod	_	_
49	refuse	refuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	45	ccomp	_	_
50	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	51	det	_	_
51	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **invite** | must · passive |  | the merman and king's daughter |  |  |  | first *property* | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Recipient |
| 2 | **not** **is** | may | company |  | merman |  |  | agreeable *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **remain** | to-infinitive | company *not said here* |  |  | dry land |  | long *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on land=Location |
| 4 | **have** | shall | merman | a wet stone |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Patient |
| 5 | **sit on** | to-infinitive | merman *not said here* | a wet stone *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **think** *speech: other* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 7 | **not** **refuse** | future | merman |  |  |  | time |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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