---
title: In the moonlight, when all on board were asleep, excepting the man a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: In the moonlight, when all on board were asleep, excepting the man at the helm, who was steering, she sat on the deck, gazing down through the clear water. Who acts: all, helm, mermaid. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3, with its dep
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3, sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the moonlight, when all on board were asleep, excepting the man at the helm, who was steering, she sat on the deck, gazing down through the clear water.

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**Who acts:** all, helm, mermaid · **What happens:** be, except, steer, sit, gaze down · **To what, where:** man, helm, moonlight

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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 (all, helm, mermaid), 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:pg27200:77:86
# text = In the moonlight, when all on board were asleep, excepting the man at the helm, who was steering, she sat on the deck, gazing down through the clear water.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	moonlight	moonlight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
5	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	10	mark	_	_
6	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	nsubj	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	board	board	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	excepting	except	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	helm	helm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	steering	steer	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	deck	deck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	gazing	gaze	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
30	down	down	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	through	through	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	clear	clear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | all |  |  |  |  | asleep *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **except** | gerund | all *not said here* | the man |  | the helm |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **steer** | past · progressive | the helm |  |  |  |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **sit** | past | mermaid |  |  | the moonlight |  | on the deck | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in moonlight=Location |
| 5 | **gaze down** | gerund | mermaid *not said here* |  |  |  |  | through the clear water; down *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent through water=Theme |

<!-- .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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