---
title: So she swam about among the beams and planks which strewed the surfa… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: So she swam about among the beams and planks which strewed the surface of the sea, forgetting that they could crush her to pieces. Who acts: water, beams, planks. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So she swam about among the beams and planks which strewed the surface of the sea, forgetting that they could crush her to pieces.

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**Who acts:** water, beams, planks · **What happens:** swim, strew, forget, not crush · **To what, where:** beams, surface, water

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (water, beams, planks), 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:pg27200:76:11
# text = So she swam about among the beams and planks which strewed the surface of the sea, forgetting that they could crush her to pieces.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	swam	swim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	about	about	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	among	among	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	beams	beam	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	planks	plank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	strewed	strew	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	surface	surface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	forgetting	forget	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	crush	crush	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
23	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swim** | past | water |  |  | the beams and planks |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme among beam=Trajectory |
| 2 | **strew** | past | the beams and planks | the surface of the sea |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent surface=Theme |
| 3 | **forget** | gerund | water *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **crush** | could | planks *= plank* | water |  |  |  | to pieces *result* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent she=Patient to piece=Result |

<!-- .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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