---
title: The little fishes, who swam about in the water beneath, had seen the… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The little fishes, who swam about in the water beneath, had seen the toad, and heard what she said, so they lifted their heads above the water to look at the little maiden. Who acts: toad, fishes. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Tiny or Thumbelina, wi
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Little Tiny or Thumbelina, sentence 31

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The little fishes, who swam about in the water beneath, had seen the toad, and heard what she said, so they lifted their heads above the water to look at the little maiden.

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**Who acts:** toad, fishes · **What happens:** swim, see, hear, say, lift, look · **To what, where:** little fishes, water beneath, toad, heads, water · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Tiny or Thumbelina. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (toad, fishes), 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:pg27200:79:31
# text = The little fishes, who swam about in the water beneath, had seen the toad, and heard what she said, so they lifted their heads above the water to look at the little maiden.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	fishes	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
6	swam	swim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	about	about	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	beneath	beneath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	toad	toad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
20	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	obj	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	so	so	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	lifted	lift	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
29	above	above	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	advcl	_	_
34	at	at	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swim** | past |  | the little fishes |  | the water beneath |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in beneath=Trajectory |
| 2 | **see** | past · perfect |  | the toad |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer toad=Stimulus |
| 3 | **hear** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | toad |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **lift** | past | fishes *= fish* | fishes's heads |  | the water |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent head=Theme above water=Destination |
| 6 | **look** | to-infinitive | fishes *= fish* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the little maiden | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at maiden=Theme |

<!-- .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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