---
title: She saw that each held in its grasp something it had seized with its… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: She saw that each held in its grasp something it had seized with its numerous little arms, as if they were iron bands. Who acts: courage, polypi. 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
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, sentence 88

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She saw that each held in its grasp something it had seized with its numerous little arms, as if they were iron bands.

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**Who acts:** courage, polypi · **What happens:** see, hold, seize, be · **To what, where:** each, something, side

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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 (courage, polypi), 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:pg27200:76:88
# text = She saw that each held in its grasp something it had seized with its numerous little arms, as if they were iron bands.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	xcomp	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	grasp	grasp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	5	obl	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	seized	seize	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
15	numerous	numerous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
16	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
20	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	iron	iron	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	bands	band	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | courage |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **hold** | participle · passive |  | each |  | something |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme in something=Location |
| 3 | **seize** | past · perfect · passive |  | side |  |  |  | with side's numerous little arms | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | polypi |  |  |  |  | as iron bands | tree rules |

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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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