---
title: His limbs were failing him, his beautiful eyes were closed, and he w… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: His limbs were failing him, his beautiful eyes were closed, and he would have died had not the little mermaid come to his assistance. Who acts: limbs, sea, little mermaid. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, with its dependency tree a
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His limbs were failing him, his beautiful eyes were closed, and he would have died had not the little mermaid come to his assistance.

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**Who acts:** limbs, sea, little mermaid · **What happens:** fail, close, die, have, not come, assist · **To what, where:** sea, beautiful eyes, assistance

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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 (limbs, sea, little mermaid), 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:pg27200:76:13
# text = His limbs were failing him, his beautiful eyes were closed, and he would have died had not the little mermaid come to his assistance.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	limbs	limb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	failing	fail	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	closed	close	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux	_	_
17	died	die	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
18	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	advcl	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	assistance	assistance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fail** | past · progressive | sea's limbs | sea |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Eventuality |
| 2 | **close** | past · passive |  | sea's beautiful eyes |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **die** | would · perfect | sea |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **have** | participle | sea *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **come** | infinitive | the little mermaid |  |  | sea's assistance |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to assistance=Initial\_Location |
| 6 | **assist** |  | sea |  |  |  |  |  | nom assistance «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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