---
title: For many weeks the poor mermaid sat and watched over the dead body o… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For many weeks the poor mermaid sat and watched over the dead body of her lover, weeping salt tears over his loss, when suddenly one day their old friend the wolf appeared and said, ‘Cover the Prince’s body with all the leaves and flowers you can find in the wood.’ Who acts: poor mermaid, wolf, you.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 94

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For many weeks the poor mermaid sat and watched over the dead body of her lover, weeping salt tears over his loss, when suddenly one day their old friend the wolf appeared and said, ‘Cover the Prince’s body with all the leaves and flowers you can find in the wood.’

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**Who acts:** poor mermaid, wolf, you · **What happens:** sit, watch, weep, appear, say, cover · **To what, where:** dead body, salt tears, loss, body, leaves · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor mermaid, wolf, you), 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:pg7277:52:94
# text = For many weeks the poor mermaid sat and watched over the dead body of her lover, weeping salt tears over his loss, when suddenly one day their old friend the wolf appeared and said, ‘Cover the Prince’s body with all the leaves and flowers you can find in the wood.’
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	weeks	week	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
10	over	over	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	lover	lover	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	weeping	weep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
19	salt	salt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	over	over	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	loss	loss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
25	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
26	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nummod	_	_
28	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl:unmarked	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	appos	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
34	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
38	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	Cover	cover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	ccomp	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	43	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	’s	's	PART	POS	_	41	case	_	_
43	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	_
44	with	with	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
45	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	47	det:predet	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
47	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	obl	_	_
48	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
49	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	conj	_	_
50	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	52	nsubj	_	_
51	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	52	aux	_	_
52	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	47	acl:relcl	_	_
53	in	in	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | the poor mermaid |  |  |  | week |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **watch** | past | the poor mermaid *not said here* |  |  | the dead body of mermaid's lover |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over body=Location |
| 3 | **weep** | gerund | the poor mermaid *not said here* | salt tears |  | emperor's loss |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent tear=Theme |
| 4 | **appear** | past | the wolf |  |  |  | day |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the wolf *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **cover** | infinitive |  | the Prince's body |  |  |  | with all leaves and flowers; in the wood | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent body=Destination in wood=Theme |
| 7 | **find** | can | you | all leaves and flowers *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leaf=Topic |

<!-- .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:** «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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