---
title: Her grandmother called the little birds fishes, or she would not hav… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Her grandmother called the little birds fishes, or she would not have understood her; for she had never seen birds. Who acts: grandmother, shadow. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, sentence 30

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Her grandmother called the little birds fishes, or she would not have understood her; for she had never seen birds.

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**Who acts:** grandmother, shadow · **What happens:** call, not understand, not see · **To what, where:** birds fishes, shadow · **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 (grandmother, shadow), 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:pg27200:75:30
# text = Her grandmother called the little birds fishes, or she would not have understood her; for she had never seen birds.
1	Her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	grandmother	grandmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	compound	_	_
7	fishes	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
13	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux	_	_
14	understood	understand	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
15	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	amod	_	_
22	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** | past | shadow's grandmother |  | birds fishes |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent fish=Recipient |
| 2 | **not** **understand** | would · perfect | grandmother | shadow |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer she=Stimulus |
| 3 | **not** **see** | past · perfect | shadow |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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