---
title: Then the old lady ordered eight great oysters to attach themselves t… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the old lady ordered eight great oysters to attach themselves to the tail of the princess to show her high rank. Who acts: old lady, eight great oysters. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, sentence 70

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Then the old lady ordered eight great oysters to attach themselves to the tail of the princess to show her high rank.

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**Who acts:** old lady, eight great oysters · **What happens:** order, attach, show · **To what, where:** eight great oysters, oysters, high rank

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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 (old lady, eight great oysters), 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:pg27200:75:70
# text = Then the old lady ordered eight great oysters to attach themselves to the tail of the princess to show her high rank.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	ordered	order	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	eight	eight	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
7	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	oysters	oyster	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	attach	attach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
11	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obj	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
20	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	rank	rank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **order** | past | the old lady | eight great oysters |  |  | then |  | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent oyster=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **attach** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | eight great oysters *not said here* | oysters *= oyster* |  |  |  | to the tail of the princess | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent themselves=Patient to tail=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **show** | to-infinitive | eight great oysters *not said here* | body's high rank |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent rank=Recipient |

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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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