---
title: As soon as the eldest was fifteen, she was allowed to rise to the su… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: As soon as the eldest was fifteen, she was allowed to rise to the surface of the ocean. Who acts: eldest, turn. 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 every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, sentence 38

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As soon as the eldest was fifteen, she was allowed to rise to the surface of the ocean.

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**Who acts:** eldest, turn · **What happens:** be, allow, rise · **To what, where:** fifteen, turn, surface

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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 (eldest, turn), 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:pg27200:75:38
# text = As soon as the eldest was fifteen, she was allowed to rise to the surface of the ocean.
1	As	as	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	fifteen	fifteen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	allowed	allow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	rise	rise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	surface	surface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	ocean	ocean	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the eldest | fifteen |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **allow** | past · passive |  | turn |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **rise** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | turn *not said here* |  |  | the surface of the ocean |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to surface=Initial\_Location |

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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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