Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, sentence 89

The white skeletons of human beings who had perished at sea, and had sunk down into the deep waters, skeletons of land animals, oars, rudders, and chests of ships were lying tightly grasped by their clinging arms; even a little mermaid, whom they had caught and strangled; and this seemed the most shocking of all to the little princess.

Who acts: chests, this · What happens: perish, sink down, lie, grasp, catch, strangle · To what, where: white skeletons, sea, deep waters, little mermaid

This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (chests, this), 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	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 skeletons	det
2	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 skeletons	amod
3	skeletons	skeleton	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 perished	nsubj:pass
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 beings	case
5	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 beings	amod
6	beings	being	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 perished	obl
7	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 perished	nsubj:pass
8	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 perished	aux
9	perished	perish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
10	at	at	ADP	_	11 sea	case
11	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 perished	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 sunk	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 sunk	cc
14	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 sunk	aux
15	sunk	sink	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	9 perished	conj
16	down	down	ADP	_	15 sunk	compound:prt
17	into	into	ADP	_	20 waters	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 waters	det
19	deep	deep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 waters	amod
20	waters	water	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 sunk	obl
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 skeletons	punct
22	skeletons	skeleton	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 waters	conj
23	of	of	ADP	_	25 animals	case
24	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 animals	compound
25	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 skeletons	nmod
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 oars	punct
27	oars	oar	NOUN	Number=Plur	25 animals	conj
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 rudders	punct
29	rudders	rudder	NOUN	Number=Plur	25 animals	conj
30	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 lying	punct
31	and	and	CCONJ	_	36 lying	cc
32	chests	chest	NOUN	Number=Plur	36 lying	nsubj
33	of	of	ADP	_	34 ships	case
34	ships	ship	NOUN	Number=Plur	32 chests	nmod
35	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	36 lying	aux
36	lying	lie	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 perished	advcl
37	tightly	tightly	ADV	_	38 grasped	advmod
38	grasped	grasp	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	36 lying	advcl
39	by	by	ADP	_	42 arms	case
40	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	42 arms	nmod:poss
41	clinging	clinging	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 arms	compound
42	arms	arm	NOUN	Number=Plur	38 grasped	obl
43	;	;	PUNCT	_	47 mermaid	punct
44	even	even	ADV	_	47 mermaid	advmod
45	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	47 mermaid	det
46	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	47 mermaid	amod
47	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 perished	parataxis
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	52 caught	punct
49	whom	whom	PRON	PronType=Rel	52 caught	nsubj:pass
50	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	52 caught	nsubj:pass
51	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	52 caught	aux
52	caught	catch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	47 mermaid	parataxis
53	and	and	CCONJ	_	54 strangled	cc
54	strangled	strangle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	52 caught	conj
55	;	;	PUNCT	_	58 seemed	punct
56	and	and	CCONJ	_	58 seemed	cc
57	this	this	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	58 seemed	nsubj
58	seemed	seem	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 perished	parataxis
59	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	61 shocking	det
60	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	61 shocking	advmod
61	shocking	shocking	ADJ	Degree=Pos	58 seemed	xcomp
62	of	of	ADP	_	63 all	case
63	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	61 shocking	obl
64	to	to	ADP	_	67 princess	case
65	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	67 princess	det
66	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	67 princess	amod
67	princess	princess	NOUN	Number=Sing	63 all	nmod
68	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 perished	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	perish	past · perfect · passive		the white skeletons	sea	of human beings	tree rules
2	sink down	past · perfect			the deep waters and skeletons of land animals and oars and rudders		vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	lie	past · progressive	chests of ships				vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	grasp	participle	chests of ships not said here			by skeletons's clinging arms; tightly property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
5	catch	past · perfect · passive		a little mermaid			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
6	strangle	participle					vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
7	seem	past	this			shocking property	vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme

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/pg27200/76/89/