---
title: All that could be reached in the sea they seized upon, and held fast… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: All that could be reached in the sea they seized upon, and held fast, so that it never escaped from their clutches. Who acts: branches, root. 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 every cla
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, sentence 84

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All that could be reached in the sea they seized upon, and held fast, so that it never escaped from their clutches.

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**Who acts:** branches, root · **What happens:** reach, seize, hold, not escape, clutch · **To what, where:** that, sea, clutches

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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 (branches, root), 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:pg27200:76:84
# text = All that could be reached in the sea they seized upon, and held fast, so that it never escaped from their clutches.
1	All	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	2	det:predet	_	_
2	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	reached	reach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
15	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	21	mark	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	fixed	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	escaped	escape	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	clutches	clutch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | could · passive |  | that |  | the sea |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **seize** | past | branches *= branch* | the sea *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sea=Theme |
| 3 | **hold** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **escape** | past | root |  |  | branches's clutches |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from clutch=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **clutch** |  | branches *= branch* |  |  |  |  |  | nom clutch «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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