---
title: The mermaid looked in vain for him, and coated all night upon the se… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The mermaid looked in vain for him, and coated all night upon the sea; but he never came back, and never more did he gladden her eyes. Who acts: mermaid, water. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/19/13/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/19/) / 13

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The mermaid looked in vain for him, and coated all night upon the sea; but he never came back, and never more did he gladden her eyes.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mermaid, water · **What happens:** look, coat, not come back, gladden · **To what, where:** vain, eyes

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mermaid, water), 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:pg3282:19:13
# text = The mermaid looked in vain for him, and coated all night upon the sea; but he never came back, and never more did he gladden her eyes.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	obl	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	coated	coat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	12	det	_	_
12	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl:unmarked	_	_
13	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
21	back	back	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	28	advcl	_	_
26	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	gladden	gladden	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
29	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | the mermaid |  |  | vain |  | for water | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent in vain=Location for he=Theme |
| 2 | **coat** | past | the mermaid *not said here* |  |  |  | night | upon the sea | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **come back** | past | water |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **gladden** | past · do-support | water | mermaid's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus eye=Experiencer |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/19/12/)
- next →: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/19/14/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/19/)