---
title: She was in his thoughts, and the knife trembled in the hand of the l… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: She was in his thoughts, and the knife trembled in the hand of the little mermaid: then she flung it far away from her into the waves; the water turned red where it fell, and the drops that spurted up looked like blood. Who acts: bride, water, drops. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Ande
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 4, sentence 34

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She was in his thoughts, and the knife trembled in the hand of the little mermaid: then she flung it far away from her into the waves; the water turned red where it fell, and the drops that spurted up looked like blood.

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**Who acts:** bride, water, drops · **What happens:** be, tremble, fling, turn, fall, spurt up · **To what, where:** thoughts, knife, hand, waves

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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 (bride, water, drops), 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:pg27200:78:34
# text = She was in his thoughts, and the knife trembled in the hand of the little mermaid: then she flung it far away from her into the waves; the water turned red where it fell, and the drops that spurted up looked like blood.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	thoughts	thought	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
10	trembled	tremble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
19	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	flung	fling	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	24	advmod	_	_
24	away	away	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
25	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	_
27	into	into	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
33	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
34	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	xcomp	_	_
35	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	37	advmod	_	_
36	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	drops	drop	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	nsubj	_	_
42	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	43	nsubj	_	_
43	spurted	spurt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	acl:relcl	_	_
44	up	up	ADP	RP	_	43	compound:prt	_	_
45	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
46	like	like	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | bride |  |  | prince's thoughts and the knife |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **tremble** | participle |  | the knife *not said here* |  | the hand of the little mermaid |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hand=Location |
| 3 | **fling** | past | bride | hand |  | the waves | then | away *property* | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent it=Theme into wave=Destination |
| 4 | **turn** | past | the water |  |  |  |  | red *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **fall** | past | water |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **spurt up** | past | the drops |  |  |  |  |  | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Source |
| 7 | **look** | past | the drops |  |  |  |  | like blood | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=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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