---
title: "It was you," said the prince, "who saved my life when I lay dead on… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "It was you," said the prince, "who saved my life when I lay dead on the beach," and he folded his blushing bride in his arms. " Who acts: It, prince, he. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/78/1/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Little Mermaid, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/78/) / 1

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 4, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"It was you," said the prince, "who saved my life when I lay dead on the beach," and he folded his blushing bride in his arms. "

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, prince, he · **What happens:** be, say, save, lay, fold, blush · **To what, where:** you, life, beach, blushing bride, arms · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, prince, he), 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:pg27200:78:1
# text = "It was you," said the prince, "who saved my life when I lay dead on the beach," and he folded his blushing bride in his arms. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	saved	save	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
14	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
19	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	beach	beach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	folded	fold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
29	blushing	blush	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	amod	_	_
30	bride	bride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
35	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | It | you |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **save** *in a quote* | past |  | my life |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |
| 4 | **lay** *in a quote* | present | the prince *= prince* |  |  | the beach |  | dead *property* | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on beach=Destination |
| 5 | **fold** | past | he | his blushing bride |  | his arms |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent bride=Patient |
| 6 | **blush** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn hiccup-40.1.1 «NP V»: agent=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [The Little Mermaid, part 3, 97](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/77/97/)
- next →: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/78/2/)
- ↑ back to [The Little Mermaid, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/78/)