---
title: It was so old, that it began to think of marriage; and it happened t… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was so old, that it began to think of marriage; and it happened that it came to be washed in company with a garter. Who acts: world, it. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The False Collar, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The False Collar, sentence 2

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It was so old, that it began to think of marriage; and it happened that it came to be washed in company with a garter.

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**Who acts:** world, it · **What happens:** be, begin, think, happen, come, wash · **To what, where:** company

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The False Collar. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (world, it), 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:pg1597:22:2
# text = It was so old, that it began to think of marriage; and it happened that it came to be washed in company with a garter.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	marriage	marriage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	washed	wash	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	advcl	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	company	company	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	garter	garter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	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 | **is** | past | world |  |  |  |  | old *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **begin** | past | world |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | world *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of marriage | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **come** | past | world |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **wash** | to-infinitive · passive | world *not said here* |  |  | company |  | with a garter | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V PP.instrument»: with garter=Instrument |

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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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