---
title: This was great sorrow to the little mermaid; she knew how much more… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: This was great sorrow to the little mermaid; she knew how much more sweetly she herself could sing once, and she thought, "Oh if he could only know that! Who acts: This, sun, prince. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3, with its depend
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3, sentence 47

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
This was great sorrow to the little mermaid; she knew how much more sweetly she herself could sing once, and she thought, "Oh if he could only know that!

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**Who acts:** This, sun, prince · **What happens:** be, know, sing, think · **To what, where:** great sorrow, that · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (This, sun, prince), 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:pg27200:77:47
# text = This was great sorrow to the little mermaid; she knew how much more sweetly she herself could sing once, and she thought, "Oh if he could only know that!
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
12	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
13	much	much	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	15	advmod	_	_
15	sweetly	sweetly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	conj	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
20	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
26	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	32	discourse	_	_
28	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	only	only	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	ccomp	_	_
33	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | This | great sorrow |  |  |  | to the little mermaid | tree rules |
| 2 | **know** | past | sun |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | could | sun |  |  |  |  | once, sweetly *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | sun |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **know** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | could | prince | that |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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