---
title: She saw the bright sun, and all around her floated hundreds of trans… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: She saw the bright sun, and all around her floated hundreds of transparent beautiful beings; she could see through them the white sails of the ship, and the red clouds in the sky; their speech was melodious, but too ethereal to be heard by mortal ears, as they were also unseen by mortal eyes. Who ac
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 4, sentence 37

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She saw the bright sun, and all around her floated hundreds of transparent beautiful beings; she could see through them the white sails of the ship, and the red clouds in the sky; their speech was melodious, but too ethereal to be heard by mortal ears, as they were also unseen by mortal eyes.

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**Who acts:** ray, speech, mortal ears, sails, sky · **What happens:** see, float, be, hear, speak · **To what, where:** bright sun, hundreds, white sails · **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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ray, speech, mortal ears, sails), 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:pg27200:78:37
# text = She saw the bright sun, and all around her floated hundreds of transparent beautiful beings; she could see through them the white sails of the ship, and the red clouds in the sky; their speech was melodious, but too ethereal to be heard by mortal ears, as they were also unseen by mortal eyes.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	all	all	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
9	around	around	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	_
11	floated	float	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	hundreds	hundred	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	transparent	transparent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	beings	being	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
21	through	through	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	sails	sail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	41	punct	_	_
38	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	speech	speech	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
40	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	cop	_	_
41	melodious	melodious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
43	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
44	too	too	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	_
45	ethereal	ethereal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	conj	_	_
46	to	to	PART	TO	_	48	mark	_	_
47	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	48	aux:pass	_	_
48	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	45	advcl	_	_
49	by	by	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
50	mortal	mortal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	51	amod	_	_
51	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
53	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	57	mark	_	_
54	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	57	nsubj	_	_
55	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	57	cop	_	_
56	also	also	ADV	RB	_	57	advmod	_	_
57	unseen	unseen	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	conj	_	_
58	by	by	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
59	mortal	mortal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	60	amod	_	_
60	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	57	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | ray | the bright sun |  |  |  | the red clouds in the sky *obl* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sun=Stimulus |
| 2 | **float** | past |  | hundreds of transparent beautiful beings |  |  |  | around ray; all *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent hundred=Theme around she=Trajectory |
| 3 | **see** | could | ray | the white sails of the ship |  |  |  | through beings *= being* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sail=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is** | past | sky's speech |  |  |  |  | melodious *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** |  | sky's speech *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **hear** | to-infinitive · passive | mortal ears |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 7 | **is** | past | sails *= sail* |  |  |  |  | by mortal eyes; unseen *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **speak** |  | sky |  |  |  |  |  | nom speech «communication transitive»: poss=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.

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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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