---
title: He fixed his coal-black eyes upon her so earnestly that she cast dow… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He fixed his coal-black eyes upon her so earnestly that she cast down her own, and then became aware that her fish's tail was gone, and that she had as pretty a pair of white legs and tiny feet as any little maiden could have; but she had no clothes, so she wrapped herself in her long, thick hair. W
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He fixed his coal-black eyes upon her so earnestly that she cast down her own, and then became aware that her fish's tail was gone, and that she had as pretty a pair of white legs and tiny feet as any little maiden could have; but she had no clothes, so she wrapped herself in her long, thick hair.

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**Who acts:** prince, sun, tail, little maiden · **What happens:** fix, cast down, become, be, have, wrap · **To what, where:** black eyes, pair, clothes, sun, long thick hair

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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 (prince, sun, tail, little maiden), 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:pg27200:77:42
# text = He fixed his coal-black eyes upon her so earnestly that she cast down her own, and then became aware that her fish's tail was gone, and that she had as pretty a pair of white legs and tiny feet as any little maiden could have; but she had no clothes, so she wrapped herself in her long, thick hair.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	fixed	fix	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
4	coal	coal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
8	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	earnestly	earnestly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	cast	cast	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
15	down	down	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	_
21	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
22	aware	aware	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	's	's	PART	POS	_	25	case	_	_
27	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	gone	gone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
32	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
33	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
35	as	as	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	pretty	pretty	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	pair	pair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nmod	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
43	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	conj	_	_
45	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	50	mark	_	_
46	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	48	det	_	_
47	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	nsubj	_	_
49	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	50	aux	_	_
50	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
52	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
53	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	54	nsubj	_	_
54	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
55	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	56	det	_	_
56	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	54	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	60	punct	_	_
58	so	so	ADV	RB	_	60	advmod	_	_
59	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	60	nsubj	_	_
60	wrapped	wrap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
61	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	60	obj	_	_
62	in	in	ADP	IN	_	67	case	_	_
63	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	67	nmod:poss	_	_
64	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	67	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	64	punct	_	_
66	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	67	amod	_	_
67	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	60	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
68	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fix** | past | prince | prince's black eyes |  |  |  | upon sun | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent eye=Patient |
| 2 | **cast down** | past | sun |  |  |  |  | earnestly, own *property* | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **become** | past |  |  |  |  | then | aware *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **is** | past | sun's fish's tail |  |  |  |  | gone *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **have** | past | sun | a pair of white legs and tiny feet |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pair=Patient |
| 6 | **have** | could | any little maiden |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **have** | past | sun | no clothes |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent clothes=Patient |
| 8 | **wrap** | past | sun | sun |  | sun's long thick hair |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent herself=Theme in hair=Destination |

<!-- .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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