---
title: The dolphins sported in the waves, and the great whales spouted wate… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The dolphins sported in the waves, and the great whales spouted water from their nostrils till it seemed as if a hundred fountains were playing in every direction. Who acts: dolphins, hundred fountains. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, par
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, sentence 53

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The dolphins sported in the waves, and the great whales spouted water from their nostrils till it seemed as if a hundred fountains were playing in every direction.

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**Who acts:** dolphins, hundred fountains · **What happens:** sport, spout, seem, play · **To what, where:** dolphins, direction

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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 (dolphins, hundred fountains), 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:pg27200:75:53
# text = The dolphins sported in the waves, and the great whales spouted water from their nostrils till it seemed as if a hundred fountains were playing in every direction.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	dolphins	dolphin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
3	sported	sport	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	whales	whale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
12	spouted	spout	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	amod	_	_
13	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
14	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	nostrils	nostril	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	_
17	till	till	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	_
19	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	nummod	_	_
24	fountains	fountain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	playing	play	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	xcomp	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	29	det	_	_
29	direction	direction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sport** | participle |  | the dolphins *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **spout** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Source |
| 3 | **seem** | past | the dolphins |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **play** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · progressive | hundred fountains |  |  | every direction |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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