---
title: She beckoned to them, and smiled, and wanted to tell them how happy… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: She beckoned to them, and smiled, and wanted to tell them how happy and well off she was; but the cabin-boy approached, and when her sisters dived down he thought it was only the foam of the sea which he saw. Who acts: mermaid, cabin boy, sisters, boy. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian An
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3, sentence 89

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She beckoned to them, and smiled, and wanted to tell them how happy and well off she was; but the cabin-boy approached, and when her sisters dived down he thought it was only the foam of the sea which he saw.

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**Who acts:** mermaid, cabin boy, sisters, boy, castle · **What happens:** beckon, smile, want, tell, be, approach · **To what, where:** sisters, foam · **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, cabin boy, sisters, boy), 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:pg27200:77:89
# text = She beckoned to them, and smiled, and wanted to tell them how happy and well off she was; but the cabin-boy approached, and when her sisters dived down he thought it was only the foam of the sea which he saw.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	beckoned	beckon	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	smiled	smile	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
15	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	ccomp	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	20	advmod	_	_
18	off	off	ADP	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	cabin	cabin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	approached	approach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
30	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	33	advmod	_	_
31	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
33	dived	dive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	advcl	_	_
34	down	down	ADP	RP	_	33	compound:prt	_	_
35	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
37	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
38	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	cop	_	_
39	only	only	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	foam	foam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	ccomp	_	_
42	of	of	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nmod	_	_
45	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	47	obj	_	_
46	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
47	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beckon** | past | mermaid |  | sisters *= sister* |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient |
| 2 | **smile** | past | mermaid *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **want** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  |  | sisters *= sister* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 5 | **be** | past | mermaid |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **approach** | past | the cabin boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **dive down** | past | mermaid's sisters |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 8 | **think** *speech: other* | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **is a** | past | castle | the foam |  |  |  | of the sea | tree rules |
| 10 | **see** | past | boy | the foam |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer which=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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