Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, sentence 1

Far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflower, and as clear as crystal, it is very, very deep; so deep, indeed, that no cable could fathom it: many church steeples, piled one upon another, would not reach from the ground beneath to the surface of the water above.

Who acts: ocean, water, cable, many church steeples · What happens: be, fathom, pile, not reach · To what, where: water, one, another, ground

This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ocean, water, cable, many church steeples), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	2 out	advmod
2	out	out	ADV	_	5 ocean	advmod
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 ocean	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 ocean	det
5	ocean	ocean	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 blue	nsubj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 blue	punct
7	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	12 blue	advmod
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 water	det
9	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 blue	nsubj
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 blue	cop
11	as	as	ADV	_	12 blue	advmod
12	blue	blue	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
13	as	as	ADP	_	16 cornflower	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 cornflower	det
15	prettiest	pretty	ADJ	Degree=Sup	16 cornflower	amod
16	cornflower	cornflower	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 blue	obl
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 clear	punct
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	20 clear	cc
19	as	as	ADV	_	20 clear	advmod
20	clear	clear	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 blue	conj
21	as	as	ADP	_	22 crystal	case
22	crystal	crystal	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 clear	obl
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 deep	punct
24	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	29 deep	nsubj
25	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	29 deep	cop
26	very	very	ADV	_	29 deep	advmod
27	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 deep	punct
28	very	very	ADV	_	29 deep	advmod
29	deep	deep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 blue	conj
30	;	;	PUNCT	_	32 deep	punct
31	so	so	ADV	_	32 deep	advmod
32	deep	deep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 blue	conj
33	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 indeed	punct
34	indeed	indeed	ADV	_	12 blue	advmod
35	,	,	PUNCT	_	40 fathom	punct
36	that	that	SCONJ	_	40 fathom	mark
37	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	38 cable	det
38	cable	cable	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 fathom	nsubj
39	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	40 fathom	aux
40	fathom	fathom	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 blue	parataxis
41	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	40 fathom	obj
42	:	:	PUNCT	_	45 steeples	punct
43	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	45 steeples	amod
44	church	church	NOUN	Number=Sing	45 steeples	compound
45	steeples	steeple	NOUN	Number=Plur	40 fathom	parataxis
46	,	,	PUNCT	_	47 piled	punct
47	piled	pile	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	45 steeples	acl:relcl
48	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	47 piled	obj
49	upon	upon	ADP	_	50 another	case
50	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	48 one	nmod
51	,	,	PUNCT	_	54 reach	punct
52	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	54 reach	aux
53	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	54 reach	advmod
54	reach	reach	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	45 steeples	parataxis
55	from	from	ADP	_	57 ground	case
56	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	57 ground	det
57	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	54 reach	obl
58	beneath	beneath	ADV	_	54 reach	advmod
59	to	to	ADP	_	61 surface	case
60	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	61 surface	det
61	surface	surface	NOUN	Number=Sing	58 beneath	obl
62	of	of	ADP	_	64 water	case
63	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	64 water	det
64	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	61 surface	nmod
65	above	above	ADV	_	64 water	advmod
66	.	.	PUNCT	_	12 blue	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is	present	the ocean			as the prettiest cornflower; blue, indeed property	tree rules
2	be		the ocean not said here			as crystal	tree rules
3	is	present	water			deep property	tree rules
4	be		the ocean not said here				tree rules
5	fathom	could	no cable	water			vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus
6	pile	past	many church steeples not said here	one	another		vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent one=Theme upon another=Destination
7	not reach	would			the ground	beneath property	vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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.

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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/75/1/