---
title: The dark-blue sea was covered with white-sailed ships, and in the ba… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The dark-blue sea was covered with white-sailed ships, and in the barns sat old women, girls, and children picking hops into a large tub; the young ones sang songs, and the old people told fairy tales about goblins and sorcerers. Who acts: barns, children, old people. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of H
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Elder-tree Mother, sentence 95

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The dark-blue sea was covered with white-sailed ships, and in the barns sat old women, girls, and children picking hops into a large tub; the young ones sang songs, and the old people told fairy tales about goblins and sorcerers.

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**Who acts:** barns, children, old people · **What happens:** cover, sail, sit, pick, sing, tell · **To what, where:** blue sea, old women, hops, large tub, songs, fairy tales · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Elder-tree Mother. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (barns, children, old people), 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:pg27200:72:95
# text = The dark-blue sea was covered with white-sailed ships, and in the barns sat old women, girls, and children picking hops into a large tub; the young ones sang songs, and the old people told fairy tales about goblins and sorcerers.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
2	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	sailed	sail	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	amod	_	_
12	ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	barns	barn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
19	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
25	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nsubj	_	_
26	picking	pick	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	acl	_	_
27	hops	hop	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
28	into	into	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	tub	tub	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nsubj	_	_
36	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
37	songs	song	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	nsubj	_	_
43	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
44	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	compound	_	_
45	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	obj	_	_
46	about	about	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	goblins	goblin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	nmod	_	_
48	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
49	sorcerers	sorcerer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cover** | past · passive |  | the blue sea |  |  |  | with sailed ships | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Destination with ship=Theme |
| 2 | **sail** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **sit** | past | the barns | old women and girls |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location woman=Theme |
| 4 | **pick** | gerund | children *not said here* | hops |  | a large tub |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hop=Patient |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | children | songs |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location song=Theme |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the old people | fairy tales and sorcerers |  |  |  | about goblins | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent tale=Recipient about goblin=Topic |

<!-- .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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