---
title: She was a very wise woman, and exceedingly proud of her high birth;… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: She was a very wise woman, and exceedingly proud of her high birth; on that account she wore twelve oysters on her tail; while others, also of high rank, were only allowed to wear six. Who acts: mother, others. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Merm
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She was a very wise woman, and exceedingly proud of her high birth; on that account she wore twelve oysters on her tail; while others, also of high rank, were only allowed to wear six.

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**Who acts:** mother, others · **What happens:** be, wear, allow · **To what, where:** wise woman, twelve oysters, account, others, six

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mother, others), 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:pg27200:75:11
# text = She was a very wise woman, and exceedingly proud of her high birth; on that account she wore twelve oysters on her tail; while others, also of high rank, were only allowed to wear six.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	exceedingly	exceedingly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	proud	proud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	acl:relcl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	account	account	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	wore	wear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
21	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	oysters	oyster	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
27	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
28	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	also	also	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	rank	rank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
35	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux:pass	_	_
36	only	only	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	allowed	allow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	wear	wear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	xcomp	_	_
40	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | mother | a wise woman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **wear** | past | mother | twelve oysters |  | that account |  | on mother's tail | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent oyster=Source |
| 3 | **allow** | past · passive |  | others |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **wear** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | others *not said here* | six |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent six=Source |

<!-- .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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