---
title: She thought she could distinguish her father's castle, and upon it h… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: She thought she could distinguish her father's castle, and upon it her aged grandmother, with the silver crown on her head, looking through the rushing tide at the keel of the vessel. Who acts: mermaid. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, par
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3, sentence 87

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She thought she could distinguish her father's castle, and upon it her aged grandmother, with the silver crown on her head, looking through the rushing tide at the keel of the vessel.

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**Who acts:** mermaid · **What happens:** think, distinguish, look, rush · **To what, where:** castle · **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 (mermaid), 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:pg27200:77:87
# text = She thought she could distinguish her father's castle, and upon it her aged grandmother, with the silver crown on her head, looking through the rushing tide at the keel of the vessel.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	distinguish	distinguish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	aged	aged	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	grandmother	grandmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	silver	silver	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	crown	crown	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
27	through	through	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	rushing	rush	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	amod	_	_
30	tide	tide	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
31	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	keel	keel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | mermaid |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **distinguish** | could | mermaid | mermaid's father's castle |  |  |  | upon mermaid's aged grandmother; with the silver crown on mermaid's head | vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Attribute castle=Theme |
| 3 | **look** | gerund | mermaid *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the keel of the vessel; through the rushing tide | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent through tide=Theme |
| 4 | **rush** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=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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