---
title: A large ship, with three masts, lay becalmed on the water, with only… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: A large ship, with three masts, lay becalmed on the water, with only one sail set; for not a breeze stiffed, and the sailors sat idle on deck or amongst the rigging. Who acts: sailors. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, with its depe
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, sentence 77

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A large ship, with three masts, lay becalmed on the water, with only one sail set; for not a breeze stiffed, and the sailors sat idle on deck or amongst the rigging.

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**Who acts:** sailors · **What happens:** becalm, stiff, sit · **To what, where:** large ship, water, deck

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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 (sailors), 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:pg27200:75:77
# text = A large ship, with three masts, lay becalmed on the water, with only one sail set; for not a breeze stiffed, and the sailors sat idle on deck or amongst the rigging.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	masts	mast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
9	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	becalmed	becalm	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	only	only	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	_
18	sail	sail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	set	set	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	breeze	breeze	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
25	stiffed	stiff	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	sailors	sailor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	_
30	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
31	idle	idle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	xcomp	_	_
32	on	on	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	deck	deck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
34	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
35	amongst	amongst	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	rigging	rigging	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **becalm** | present · passive |  | a large ship and three masts |  | the water |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **stiff** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | for a breeze | tree rules |
| 3 | **sit** | past | the sailors |  |  | deck or the rigging |  | idle *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on deck=Location |

<!-- .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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