---
title: Her sisters asked her what she had seen during her first visit to th… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Her sisters asked her what she had seen during her first visit to the surface of the water; but she would tell them nothing. Who acts: sisters, face. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, sentence 29

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Her sisters asked her what she had seen during her first visit to the surface of the water; but she would tell them nothing.

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**Who acts:** sisters, face · **What happens:** ask, see, tell, visit · **To what, where:** face, nothing, sisters · **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 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sisters, face), 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:pg27200:76:29
# text = Her sisters asked her what she had seen during her first visit to the surface of the water; but she would tell them nothing.
1	Her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	_
9	during	during	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	12	amod	_	_
12	visit	visit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	surface	surface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	iobj	_	_
25	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | face's sisters |  | face |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **see** | past · perfect | face |  |  |  | during face's first visit to the surface of the water |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | would | face | nothing | sisters *= sister* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient nothing=Topic |
| 4 | **visit** |  | face |  |  |  |  | to the surface of the water | nom visit «act transitive»: poss=agent to=obl |

<!-- .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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