---
title: The sea looked quite green, and large icebergs were floating about,… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The sea looked quite green, and large icebergs were floating about, each like a pearl, she said, but larger and loftier than the churches built by men. Who acts: sea, large icebergs, turn. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, with its 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, sentence 55

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The sea looked quite green, and large icebergs were floating about, each like a pearl, she said, but larger and loftier than the churches built by men.

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**Who acts:** sea, large icebergs, turn · **What happens:** look, float, say, build · **To what, where:** each, churches · **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 (sea, large icebergs, 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:pg27200:75:55
# text = The sea looked quite green, and large icebergs were floating about, each like a pearl, she said, but larger and loftier than the churches built by men.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	icebergs	iceberg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	floating	float	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
12	about	about	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	11	obl	_	_
15	like	like	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	pearl	pearl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	larger	large	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	20	ccomp	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	loftier	lofty	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	23	conj	_	_
26	than	than	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	churches	church	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	_
29	built	build	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl	_	_
30	by	by	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | the sea |  |  |  |  | green *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **float** | past · progressive | large icebergs | each |  |  |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | turn |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **build** | participle |  | the churches *not said here* |  |  |  | by men | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

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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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