---
title: He sat down by her side and talked to her: he said her eyes were lik… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He sat down by her side and talked to her: he said her eyes were like beautiful dark lakes, in which the thoughts swam about like little mermaids, and he told her that her forehead was a snowy mountain, which contained splendid halls full of pictures. Who acts: son, eyes, thoughts, forehead. A sente
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Flying Trunk, sentence 21

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He sat down by her side and talked to her: he said her eyes were like beautiful dark lakes, in which the thoughts swam about like little mermaids, and he told her that her forehead was a snowy mountain, which contained splendid halls full of pictures.

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**Who acts:** son, eyes, thoughts, forehead, snowy mountain · **What happens:** sit down, talk, say, be, swim, tell · **To what, where:** princess, snowy mountain, splendid halls · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flying Trunk. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son, eyes, thoughts, forehead), 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:pg27200:35:21
# text = He sat down by her side and talked to her: he said her eyes were like beautiful dark lakes, in which the thoughts swam about like little mermaids, and he told her that her forehead was a snowy mountain, which contained splendid halls full of pictures.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	down	down	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
17	like	like	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	lakes	lake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	obl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	thoughts	thought	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
26	swam	swim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
27	about	about	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
28	like	like	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	mermaids	mermaid	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
35	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	iobj	_	_
36	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
37	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	forehead	forehead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
39	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	cop	_	_
40	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	snowy	snowy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
44	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	45	nsubj	_	_
45	contained	contain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	acl:relcl	_	_
46	splendid	splendid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	halls	hall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	obj	_	_
48	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
49	of	of	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	pictures	picture	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit down** | past | son |  |  |  |  | by princess's side | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by side=Location |
| 2 | **talk** | past | son *not said here* |  | princess |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to she=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | son |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | princess's eyes |  |  |  |  | like beautiful dark lakes | tree rules |
| 5 | **swim** | past | the thoughts |  |  |  |  | like little mermaids; about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in which=Trajectory |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | son |  | princess |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 7 | **is a** | past | princess's forehead | a snowy mountain |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **contain** | past | a snowy mountain | splendid halls |  |  |  |  | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot hall=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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