---
title: Great quantities of fish could be seen through the clear water, spar… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Great quantities of fish could be seen through the clear water, sparkling in the sun's rays; they were quite surprised when they came so suddenly upon such an unexpected sight. Who acts: quantities, sun. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ib and Little Christin
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Ib and Little Christina, sentence 53

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Great quantities of fish could be seen through the clear water, sparkling in the sun's rays; they were quite surprised when they came so suddenly upon such an unexpected sight.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** quantities, sun · **What happens:** see, sparkle, be, come, ray · **To what, where:** Great quantities, clear water, rays

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ib and Little Christina. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (quantities, sun), 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:pg27200:51:53
# text = Great quantities of fish could be seen through the clear water, sparkling in the sun's rays; they were quite surprised when they came so suddenly upon such an unexpected sight.
1	Great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	quantities	quantity	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	through	through	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	clear	clear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	sparkling	sparkle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	's	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	rays	ray	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	surprised	surprised	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
24	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
29	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
30	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	33	det:predet	_	_
31	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	unexpected	unexpected	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | could · passive |  | Great quantities of fish |  | the clear water |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus |
| 2 | **sparkle** | gerund |  |  |  | the sun's rays |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in ray=Location |
| 3 | **is** | past | quantities *= quantity* |  |  |  |  | surprised *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **come** | past | quantities *= quantity* |  |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **ray** |  | the sun |  |  |  |  |  | nom ray «phenomenon transitive»: poss=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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