---
title: She peeped out from among the green rushes, and if the wind caught h… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: She peeped out from among the green rushes, and if the wind caught her long silvery-white veil, those who saw it believed it to be a swan, spreading out its wings. Who acts: water, wind, swan. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, with 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/76/45/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Little Mermaid, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/76/) / 45

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, sentence 45

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She peeped out from among the green rushes, and if the wind caught her long silvery-white veil, those who saw it believed it to be a swan, spreading out its wings.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** water, wind, swan · **What happens:** peep out, catch, see, believe, be, spread out · **To what, where:** long white veil, veil, swan, wings · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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, wind, swan), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:76:45
# text = She peeped out from among the green rushes, and if the wind caught her long silvery-white veil, those who saw it believed it to be a swan, spreading out its wings.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	peeped	peep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	out	out	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	from	from	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
5	among	among	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	rushes	rush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
15	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
16	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
17	silvery	silvery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	veil	veil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	14	obl	_	_
23	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
24	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	believed	believe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
29	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	cop	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	swan	swan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
33	spreading	spread	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	31	acl	_	_
34	out	out	ADP	RP	_	33	compound:prt	_	_
35	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **peep out** | past | water |  |  |  |  | from the green rushes | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent from rush=Theme |
| 2 | **catch** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | the wind | water's long white veil |  |  |  | those *obl* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent veil=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **believe** | past | wind | veil |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |
| 5 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | a swan |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **spread out** | gerund | a swan *not said here* | wind's wings |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location wing=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/76/44/)
- next →: [sentence 46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/76/46/)
- ↑ back to [The Little Mermaid, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/76/)