---
title: The little mermaid drew back the crimson curtain of the tent, and be… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The little mermaid drew back the crimson curtain of the tent, and beheld the fair bride with her head resting on the prince's breast. Who acts: little mermaid. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 4, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The little mermaid drew back the crimson curtain of the tent, and beheld the fair bride with her head resting on the prince's breast.

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**Who acts:** little mermaid · **What happens:** draw back, behold, rest · **To what, where:** crimson curtain, fair bride, breast

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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 (little 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:pg27200:78:32
# text = The little mermaid drew back the crimson curtain of the tent, and beheld the fair bride with her head resting on the prince's breast.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	back	back	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	crimson	crimson	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	curtain	curtain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	tent	tent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	beheld	behold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	bride	bride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
21	resting	rest	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	's	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	breast	breast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **draw back** | past | the little mermaid | the crimson curtain of the tent |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent curtain=Theme |
| 2 | **behold** | past | the little mermaid *not said here* | the fair bride |  |  |  | with bride's head | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bride=Stimulus |
| 3 | **rest** | gerund | the little mermaid *not said here* |  |  | the prince's breast |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on breast=Location |

<!-- .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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