---
title: This was a long time ago, so long indeed that our grandfathers, and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: This was a long time ago, so long indeed that our grandfathers, and even great-grandfathers, would speak of those days as "olden times;" indeed, many centuries have passed since then. Who acts: This, grandfathers, many centuries. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Anders
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap, sentence 7

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This was a long time ago, so long indeed that our grandfathers, and even great-grandfathers, would speak of those days as "olden times;" indeed, many centuries have passed since then.

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**Who acts:** This, grandfathers, many centuries · **What happens:** be, speak, pass · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, grandfathers, many centuries), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg27200:7791`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg27200:128:7
# text = This was a long time ago, so long indeed that our grandfathers, and even great-grandfathers, would speak of those days as "olden times;" indeed, many centuries have passed since then.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	0	root	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
10	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
12	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	grandfathers	grandfather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	even	even	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
17	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	_
19	grandfathers	grandfather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	25	det	_	_
25	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
26	as	as	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	_
28	olden	olden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
30	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	37	punct	_	_
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
32	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
34	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	centuries	century	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	nsubj	_	_
36	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	parataxis	_	_
38	since	since	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	37	obl	_	_
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | This |  |  |  | time | ago, long *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | would | our grandfathers and great grandfathers |  |  |  | day; time |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **pass** | present · perfect | many centuries |  |  |  |  | indeed *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «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:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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