---
title: A dreadful storm was approaching; once more the sails were reefed, a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: A dreadful storm was approaching; once more the sails were reefed, and the great ship pursued her flying course over the raging sea. Who acts: dreadful storm, great ship. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, with its dependency tree an
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, sentence 4

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A dreadful storm was approaching; once more the sails were reefed, and the great ship pursued her flying course over the raging sea.

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**Who acts:** dreadful storm, great ship · **What happens:** approach, reef, pursue, fly, rage · **To what, where:** sails, storm, course, raging sea

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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 (dreadful storm, great ship), 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:pg27200:76:4
# text = A dreadful storm was approaching; once more the sails were reefed, and the great ship pursued her flying course over the raging sea.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	dreadful	dreadful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	storm	storm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	12	advmod	_	_
8	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	12	advmod	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	sails	sail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	reefed	reef	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	pursued	pursue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
19	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	xcomp	_	_
21	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
22	over	over	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	raging	rage	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	amod	_	_
25	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **approach** | past · progressive | a dreadful storm |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **reef** | past · passive |  | the sails |  |  |  | once *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **pursue** | past | the great ship | storm |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **fly** | gerund | the great ship *not said here* | course |  | the raging sea |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent course=Theme over sea=Location |
| 5 | **rage** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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