---
title: A mermaid has not an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless sh… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: A mermaid has not an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless she wins the love of a human being. Who acts: mermaid, music. 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 of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 4, sentence 41

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A mermaid has not an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless she wins the love of a human being.

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**Who acts:** mermaid, music · **What happens:** have, obtain, win · **To what, where:** immortal soul, one, love

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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 (mermaid, music), 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:pg27200:78:41
# text = A mermaid has not an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless she wins the love of a human being.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	immortal	immortal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	soul	soul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	12	cc	_	_
10	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	obtain	obtain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
13	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	obj	_	_
14	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	wins	win	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	love	love	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	nsubj	_	_
22	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | a mermaid | a immortal soul |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent soul=Patient |
| 2 | **obtain** | can | music | one |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Theme |
| 3 | **win** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | music | the love |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent love=Eventuality |

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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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