---
title: The little boy heard his parents say, “The old man opposite is very… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The little boy heard his parents say, “The old man opposite is very well off, but he is so very, very lonely!” Who acts: little boy, parents, old man opposite, boy. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Old House, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Old House, sentence 12

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The little boy heard his parents say, “The old man opposite is very well off, but he is so very, very lonely!”

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**Who acts:** little boy, parents, old man opposite, boy · **What happens:** hear, say, be · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (little boy, parents, old man opposite, boy), 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:pg1597:19:12
# text = The little boy heard his parents say, “The old man opposite is very well off, but he is so very, very lonely!”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	heard	hear	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	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	opposite	opposite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	very	very	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	_
17	off	off	ADV	RB	_	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
23	very	very	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	very	very	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	lonely	lonely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the little boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | boy's parents |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the old man opposite |  |  |  |  | off, well *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | boy |  |  |  |  | lonely *property* | tree rules |

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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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