---
title: And the old man, who had been talking, was just on the point of goin… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And the old man, who had been talking, was just on the point of going out at the door, and he did go. Who acts: old man, point, man. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Elderbush, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Elderbush, sentence 146

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And the old man, who had been talking, was just on the point of going out at the door, and he did go.

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**Who acts:** old man, point, man · **What happens:** talk, be, go out, go · **To what, where:** old man, point, door

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Elderbush. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, point, man), 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:pg1597:17:146
# text = And the old man, who had been talking, was just on the point of going out at the door, and he did go.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	obl	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	aux	_	_
9	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
12	just	just	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	point	point	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
16	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
17	going	go	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
18	out	out	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past · perfect · progressive | the old man *not said here* | the old man |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | the old man |  |  | the point |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **go out** | gerund | the point *not said here* |  |  | the door |  |  | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **go** | past · do-support | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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:** «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 1597 (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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