---
title: They wished themselves back again in the water, and after a month ha… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They wished themselves back again in the water, and after a month had passed they said it was much more beautiful down below, and pleasanter to be at home. Who acts: sisters, water. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, with its depende
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, sentence 61

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They wished themselves back again in the water, and after a month had passed they said it was much more beautiful down below, and pleasanter to be at home.

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**Who acts:** sisters, water · **What happens:** wish back, pass, say, be · **To what, where:** sisters, water, home · **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 (sisters, water), 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:pg27200:75:61
# text = They wished themselves back again in the water, and after a month had passed they said it was much more beautiful down below, and pleasanter to be at home.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obj	_	_
4	back	back	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
5	again	again	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	after	after	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	month	month	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
20	much	much	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	22	advmod	_	_
22	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	ccomp	_	_
23	down	down	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	below	below	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	pleasanter	pleasant	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	parataxis	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
29	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	cop	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wish back** | past | sisters *= sister* | sisters *= sister* |  | the water | again |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot themselves=Theme |
| 2 | **pass** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  | month |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | sisters *= sister* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | water |  |  |  |  | beautiful, below *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | to-infinitive | sisters *= sister* *not said here* |  |  | home |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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