---
title: They were six beautiful children; but the youngest was the prettiest… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They were six beautiful children; but the youngest was the prettiest of them all; her skin was as clear and delicate as a rose-leaf, and her eyes as blue as the deepest sea; but, like all the others, she had no feet, and her body ended in a fish's tail. Who acts: others, youngest, skin, eyes. A sent
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, sentence 13

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They were six beautiful children; but the youngest was the prettiest of them all; her skin was as clear and delicate as a rose-leaf, and her eyes as blue as the deepest sea; but, like all the others, she had no feet, and her body ended in a fish's tail.

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**Who acts:** others, youngest, skin, eyes, mother, body · **What happens:** be, have, end · **To what, where:** six beautiful children, feet, tail

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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 (others, youngest, skin, eyes), 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:pg27200:75:13
# text = They were six beautiful children; but the youngest was the prettiest of them all; her skin was as clear and delicate as a rose-leaf, and her eyes as blue as the deepest sea; but, like all the others, she had no feet, and her body ended in a fish's tail.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
4	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	12	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	prettiest	pretty	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	nmod	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	_
15	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	as	as	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	clear	clear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	parataxis	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	delicate	delicate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	conj	_	_
24	as	as	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
26	rose	rose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
31	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
33	as	as	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	conj	_	_
35	as	as	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	deepest	deep	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	38	amod	_	_
38	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
40	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
42	like	like	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
43	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	45	det:predet	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
47	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj	_	_
48	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	parataxis	_	_
49	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	50	det	_	_
50	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	48	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
52	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	55	cc	_	_
53	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	54	nmod:poss	_	_
54	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	nsubj	_	_
55	ended	end	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	conj	_	_
56	in	in	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
57	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	58	det	_	_
58	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	60	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	's	's	PART	POS	_	58	case	_	_
60	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | others *= other* | six beautiful children |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the youngest |  |  |  |  | of others *= other*; pretty *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | mother's skin |  |  |  |  | clear *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | mother's skin *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as a rose leaf | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** |  | mother's eyes |  |  |  |  | as the deepest sea | tree rules |
| 6 | **have** | past | mother | no feet |  |  |  | like all others | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foot=Patient |
| 7 | **end** | past | mother's body |  |  | a fish's tail |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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