---
title: But the little mermaid had no occasion to do this, for the polypi sp… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But the little mermaid had no occasion to do this, for the polypi sprang back in terror when they caught sight of the glittering draught, which shone in her hand like a twinkling star. Who acts: little mermaid, polypi, fingers, glittering draught. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Anderse
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the little mermaid had no occasion to do this, for the polypi sprang back in terror when they caught sight of the glittering draught, which shone in her hand like a twinkling star.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little mermaid, polypi, fingers, glittering draught · **What happens:** have, do, spring back, catch, glitter, shine · **To what, where:** occasion, this, terror, sight, hand, glittering draught

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little mermaid, polypi, fingers, glittering draught), 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:pg27200:77:35
# text = But the little mermaid had no occasion to do this, for the polypi sprang back in terror when they caught sight of the glittering draught, which shone in her hand like a twinkling star.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	7	det	_	_
7	occasion	occasion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl	_	_
10	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	polypi	polypi	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	back	back	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	terror	terror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	21	mark	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
22	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	glittering	glitter	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	26	amod	_	_
26	draught	draught	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
29	shone	shine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
33	like	like	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	twinkling	twinkling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	_
36	star	star	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the little mermaid | no occasion |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent occasion=Patient |
| 2 | **do** | to-infinitive | the little mermaid *not said here* | this |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent this=Eventuality |
| 3 | **spring back** | past | the polypi |  |  | terror |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in terror=Trajectory |
| 4 | **catch** | past | fingers *= finger* | sight of the glittering draught |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Theme |
| 5 | **glitter** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **shine** | past | the glittering draught |  |  | polypi's hand |  | like a twinkling star | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hand=Location |
| 7 | **sight** |  |  | the glittering draught |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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