---
title: They were the oldest residents in the town, and people said they pos… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They were the oldest residents in the town, and people said they possessed a ton of gold, yet they were always very plainly dressed, in the coarsest stuff, but with linen of the purest whiteness. Who acts: people. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Grav
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Grave-stone, sentence 16

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They were the oldest residents in the town, and people said they possessed a ton of gold, yet they were always very plainly dressed, in the coarsest stuff, but with linen of the purest whiteness.

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**Who acts:** people · **What happens:** be, say, possess, dress · **To what, where:** oldest residents, town, ton, people, coarsest stuff · **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 Grave-stone. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people), 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:pg27200:130:16
# text = They were the oldest residents in the town, and people said they possessed a ton of gold, yet they were always very plainly dressed, in the coarsest stuff, but with linen of the purest whiteness.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	oldest	old	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	amod	_	_
5	residents	resident	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	possessed	possess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	ton	ton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
20	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
23	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	26	advmod	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	plainly	plainly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	dressed	dress	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	coarsest	coarse	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	31	amod	_	_
31	stuff	stuff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	linen	linen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	purest	pure	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	39	amod	_	_
39	whiteness	whiteness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | people | the oldest residents |  | the town |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | people |  |  |  |  | with linen of the purest whiteness | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **possess** | past | people | a ton of gold |  |  |  |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot ton=Theme |
| 4 | **dress** | past · passive |  | people |  | the coarsest stuff |  | always, plainly *property* | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

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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:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (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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