---
title: She had never been that way before: neither flowers nor grass grew t… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: She had never been that way before: neither flowers nor grass grew there; nothing but bare, gray, sandy ground stretched out to the whirlpool, where the water, like foaming mill-wheels, whirled round everything that it seized, and cast it into the fathomless deep. Who acts: mermaid, flowers, sorcere
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, sentence 80

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She had never been that way before: neither flowers nor grass grew there; nothing but bare, gray, sandy ground stretched out to the whirlpool, where the water, like foaming mill-wheels, whirled round everything that it seized, and cast it into the fathomless deep.

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**Who acts:** mermaid, flowers, sorceress · **What happens:** not be, grow, stretch out, foam, whirl, seize · **To what, where:** way, sandy ground, whirlpool, mill wheels, water, everything

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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 (mermaid, flowers, sorceress), 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:pg27200:76:80
# text = She had never been that way before: neither flowers nor grass grew there; nothing but bare, gray, sandy ground stretched out to the whirlpool, where the water, like foaming mill-wheels, whirled round everything that it seized, and cast it into the fathomless deep.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
3	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	cop	_	_
5	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	before	before	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
9	neither	neither	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	10	det	_	_
10	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
11	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	12	cc	_	_
12	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
13	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
14	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	6	parataxis	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	bare	bare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	gray	gray	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	sandy	sandy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
24	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	acl	_	_
25	out	out	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	whirlpool	whirlpool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
30	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	40	advmod	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	like	like	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
35	foaming	foam	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	32	conj	_	_
36	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	wheels	wheel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
40	whirled	whirl	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl:relcl	_	_
41	round	round	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	40	obl	_	_
43	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	45	mark	_	_
44	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
45	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
48	cast	cast	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
49	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	obj	_	_
50	into	into	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
51	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
52	fathomless	fathomless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	_
53	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past · perfect | mermaid | that way and sandy ground |  |  |  | before *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **grow** | past | neither flowers nor grass | that way and sandy ground *not said here* |  | there |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location way=Theme |
| 3 | **stretch out** | participle |  | sandy ground *not said here* |  | the whirlpool |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to whirlpool=Location |
| 4 | **foam** | gerund |  | mill wheels |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP.location V NP»: agent=Location wheel=Theme |
| 5 | **whirl** | participle · passive |  | the water |  | everything |  |  | vn coil-9.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme round everything=Destination |
| 6 | **seize** | past | sorceress |  |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **cast** | infinitive | mermaid *not said here* | sorceress |  | the fathomless deep |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP.material PP.product»: agent=Agent it=Material into deep=Product |

<!-- .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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