---
title: Many nights she stood by the open window, looking up through the dar… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Many nights she stood by the open window, looking up through the dark blue water, and watching the fish as they splashed about with their fins and tails. Who acts: Many nights, Fishes. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, with its depe
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, sentence 35

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Many nights she stood by the open window, looking up through the dark blue water, and watching the fish as they splashed about with their fins and tails.

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**Who acts:** Many nights, Fishes · **What happens:** stand, look up, watch, splash about · **To what, where:** fish

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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 (Many nights, 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:pg27200:75:35
# text = Many nights she stood by the open window, looking up through the dark blue water, and watching the fish as they splashed about with their fins and tails.
1	Many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	nights	night	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
11	up	up	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	through	through	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
19	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	splashed	splash	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
25	about	about	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	fins	fin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | Many nights |  |  |  |  | by the open window | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by window=Location |
| 2 | **look up** | gerund | Many nights *not said here* |  |  |  |  | through the dark blue water | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent through water=Theme |
| 3 | **watch** | gerund | Fishes *= fish* *not said here* | the fish |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Theme |
| 4 | **splash about** | past | Fishes *= fish* |  |  |  |  | with Fishes's fins and tails; about *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with fin=Theme |

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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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