---
title: "Do you not love me the best of them all?" the eyes of the little me… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Do you not love me the best of them all?" the eyes of the little mermaid seemed to say, when he took her in his arms, and kissed her fair forehead. Who acts: you, eyes, prince. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3, with its dependency 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3, sentence 63

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"Do you not love me the best of them all?" the eyes of the little mermaid seemed to say, when he took her in his arms, and kissed her fair forehead.

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**Who acts:** you, eyes, prince · **What happens:** not love, seem, say, take, kiss · **To what, where:** mermaid, arms, fair forehead · **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 (you, eyes, 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:pg27200:77:63
# text = "Do you not love me the best of them all?" the eyes of the little mermaid seemed to say, when he took her in his arms, and kissed her fair forehead.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	love	love	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
6	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nmod	_	_
11	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
20	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	ccomp	_	_
27	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	kissed	kiss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
34	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
35	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	forehead	forehead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **love** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you | mermaid |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **seem** | past | the eyes of the little mermaid |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | the eyes of the little mermaid *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **take** | past | prince | mermaid |  | prince's arms |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent she=Value in arm=Location |
| 5 | **kiss** | past | the eyes of the little mermaid *not said here* | mermaid's fair forehead |  |  |  |  | vn marry-36.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent forehead=Co-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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