---
title: To her it seemed most wonderful and beautiful to hear that the flowe… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: To her it seemed most wonderful and beautiful to hear that the flowers of the land should have fragrance, and not those below the sea; that the trees of the forest should be green; and that the fishes among the trees could sing so sweetly, that it was quite a pleasure to hear them. Who acts: it, flo
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To her it seemed most wonderful and beautiful to hear that the flowers of the land should have fragrance, and not those below the sea; that the trees of the forest should be green; and that the fishes among the trees could sing so sweetly, that it was quite a pleasure to hear them.

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**Who acts:** it, flowers, trees, fishes · **What happens:** seem, hear, have, be, sing · **To what, where:** shadow, fragrance, pleasure, trees · **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 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 (it, flowers, trees, fishes), 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:pg27200:75:29
# text = To her it seemed most wonderful and beautiful to hear that the flowers of the land should have fragrance, and not those below the sea; that the trees of the forest should be green; and that the fishes among the trees could sing so sweetly, that it was quite a pleasure to hear them.
1	To	to	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	6	advmod	_	_
6	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
19	fragrance	fragrance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	6	conj	_	_
24	below	below	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nsubj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
34	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
35	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	cop	_	_
36	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
39	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	fishes	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	nsubj	_	_
42	among	among	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	nmod	_	_
45	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
46	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
47	so	so	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
48	sweetly	sweetly	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
50	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	55	mark	_	_
51	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	55	expl	_	_
52	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	55	cop	_	_
53	quite	quite	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	55	det:predet	_	_
54	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	conj	_	_
56	to	to	PART	TO	_	57	mark	_	_
57	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	55	csubj	_	_
58	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	57	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | it |  | shadow |  |  | wonderful *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **hear** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **have** | should | the flowers of the land | fragrance |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fragrance=Patient |
| 4 | **is** | should | the trees of the forest |  |  |  |  | green *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | could | the fishes among the trees |  |  |  |  | sweetly *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location |
| 6 | **is a** | past | the fishes among the trees *not said here* | quite pleasure |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **hear** | to-infinitive |  | trees *= tree* |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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