---
title: And then he told his wife about the old house, and the old man, and… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And then he told his wife about the old house, and the old man, and about the pewter soldier that he sent over to him because he was so very, very lonely; and he told it as correctly as it had really been, so that the tears came into the eyes of his young wife, on account of the old house and the ol
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Old House, sentence 118

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And then he told his wife about the old house, and the old man, and about the pewter soldier that he sent over to him because he was so very, very lonely; and he told it as correctly as it had really been, so that the tears came into the eyes of his young wife, on account of the old house and the old man.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, head, tears · **What happens:** tell, send over, be, come, account · **To what, where:** old man, wife, pewter soldier, boy, head, eyes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Old House. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, head, tears), 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:pg1597:19:118
# text = And then he told his wife about the old house, and the old man, and about the pewter soldier that he sent over to him because he was so very, very lonely; and he told it as correctly as it had really been, so that the tears came into the eyes of his young wife, on account of the old house and the old man.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	iobj	_	_
7	about	about	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	about	about	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	pewter	pewter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
22	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	obj	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
25	over	over	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	_
28	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
31	so	so	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
32	very	very	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	very	very	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	lonely	lonely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
38	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
40	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	obj	_	_
41	as	as	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
42	correctly	correctly	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
43	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
44	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
45	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	aux	_	_
46	really	really	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
47	been	be	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	39	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
49	so	so	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	_
50	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	53	mark	_	_
51	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
52	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	53	nsubj	_	_
53	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
54	into	into	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	53	obl	_	_
57	of	of	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
58	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	60	nmod:poss	_	_
59	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	60	amod	_	_
60	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	63	punct	_	_
62	on	on	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
63	account	account	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	obl	_	_
64	of	of	ADP	IN	_	67	case	_	_
65	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	67	det	_	_
66	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	67	amod	_	_
67	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	63	nmod	_	_
68	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	71	cc	_	_
69	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	71	det	_	_
70	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	71	amod	_	_
71	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	67	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
72	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | man | the old man | man's wife |  | then | about the old house | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent wife=Recipient about house=Topic |
| 2 | **send over** | past | man | the pewter soldier | boy |  |  | over *property* | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent that=Theme to he=Destination |
| 3 | **is** | past | man |  |  |  |  | lonely *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | man |  | head |  |  | correctly *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent it=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **be** | past · perfect | head |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **come** | past | the tears |  |  | the eyes of man's young wife |  | on account of the old house and the old man | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into eye=Initial\_Location |
| 7 | **account** |  |  | the old house and the old man |  |  |  |  | nom account «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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