---
title: My face was mirrored in the waters of the Ganges, and my beams strov… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: My face was mirrored in the waters of the Ganges, and my beams strove to pierce through the thick intertwining boughs of the bananas, arching beneath me like the tortoise's shell. Who acts: beams, my. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, First Evening, with its d
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, First Evening, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
My face was mirrored in the waters of the Ganges, and my beams strove to pierce through the thick intertwining boughs of the bananas, arching beneath me like the tortoise's shell.

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**Who acts:** beams, my · **What happens:** mirror, strive, pierce, arch, beam · **To what, where:** face, waters

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, First Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (beams, my), 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:pg27200:92:2
# text = My face was mirrored in the waters of the Ganges, and my beams strove to pierce through the thick intertwining boughs of the bananas, arching beneath me like the tortoise's shell.
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	mirrored	mirror	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Ganges	Ganges	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	beams	beam	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	strove	strive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	pierce	pierce	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	through	through	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	intertwining	intertwining	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	boughs	bough	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	bananas	banana	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	arching	arch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
28	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	obl	_	_
30	like	like	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	's	's	PART	POS	_	32	case	_	_
34	shell	shell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mirror** | past · passive |  | My face |  | the waters of the Ganges |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **strive** | past | my beams |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **pierce** | to-infinitive | my beams *not said here* |  |  |  |  | through the thick intertwining boughs of the bananas | vn poke-19-1 «NP V NP PP.patient»: agent=Agent through bough=Patient |
| 4 | **arch** | gerund | my beams *not said here* |  |  |  |  | beneath me; like the tortoise's shell | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **beam** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom beam «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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