---
title: The whole sky looked like gold, while violet and rose-colored clouds… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The whole sky looked like gold, while violet and rose-colored clouds, which she could not describe, floated over her; and, still more rapidly than the clouds, flew a large flock of wild swans towards the setting sun, looking like a long white veil across the sea. Who acts: whole sky, sky, clouds. A 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, sentence 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The whole sky looked like gold, while violet and rose-colored clouds, which she could not describe, floated over her; and, still more rapidly than the clouds, flew a large flock of wild swans towards the setting sun, looking like a long white veil across the sea.

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**Who acts:** whole sky, sky, clouds · **What happens:** look, color, not describe, float, fly · **To what, where:** colored clouds, large flock, setting sun

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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 (whole sky, sky, clouds), 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:pg27200:75:43
# text = The whole sky looked like gold, while violet and rose-colored clouds, which she could not describe, floated over her; and, still more rapidly than the clouds, flew a large flock of wild swans towards the setting sun, looking like a long white veil across the sea.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	like	like	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
8	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
9	violet	violet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	rose	rose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	colored	color	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	amod	_	_
14	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	obj	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	describe	describe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	floated	float	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	conj	_	_
23	over	over	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	still	still	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	30	advmod	_	_
30	rapidly	rapidly	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
31	than	than	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
35	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	flock	flock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	swans	swan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nmod	_	_
42	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
44	setting	setting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	compound	_	_
45	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
47	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	advcl	_	_
48	like	like	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
49	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
50	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	amod	_	_
51	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	amod	_	_
52	veil	veil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	_
53	across	across	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | the whole sky | colored clouds |  |  |  | like gold | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **color** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn coloring-24 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **describe** | could | sky | colored clouds |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent which=Theme |
| 4 | **float** | participle | sky *not said here* |  |  |  |  | over turn | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over she=Trajectory |
| 5 | **fly** | past | the clouds | a large flock of wild swans |  | the setting sun |  | rapidly *property* | vn drive-11.5-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent flock=Theme towards sun=Destination |
| 6 | **look** | gerund | the clouds *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like a long white veil; across the sea | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent across sea=Theme |

<!-- .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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