---
title: Preben and Martha were a fine old couple, and when they both sat on… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Preben and Martha were a fine old couple, and when they both sat on the bench, at the top of the steep stone steps, in front of their house, with the branches of the linden-tree waving above them, and nodded in a gentle, friendly way to passers by, it really made one feel quite happy. Who acts: Preb
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Grave-stone, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Preben and Martha were a fine old couple, and when they both sat on the bench, at the top of the steep stone steps, in front of their house, with the branches of the linden-tree waving above them, and nodded in a gentle, friendly way to passers by, it really made one feel quite happy.

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**Who acts:** Preben, people, linden tree, way · **What happens:** be, sit, wave, nod, make · **To what, where:** fine old couple, bench, one feel

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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 (Preben, people, linden tree, way), 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:pg27200:130:17
# text = Preben and Martha were a fine old couple, and when they both sat on the bench, at the top of the steep stone steps, in front of their house, with the branches of the linden-tree waving above them, and nodded in a gentle, friendly way to passers by, it really made one feel quite happy.
1	Preben	Preben	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	Martha	Martha	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	60	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	60	cc	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	both	both	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	60	advcl	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	bench	bench	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	steep	steep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
39	linden	linden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	_
42	waving	wave	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	41	acl	_	_
43	above	above	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
47	nodded	nod	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	conj	_	_
48	in	in	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
49	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
50	gentle	gentle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
52	friendly	friendly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	_
53	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	_
54	to	to	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
55	passers	passer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	53	nmod	_	_
56	by	by	ADP	IN	_	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
58	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	60	nsubj	_	_
59	really	really	ADV	RB	_	60	advmod	_	_
60	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
61	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	62	nummod	_	_
62	feel	feel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	60	obj	_	_
63	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	64	advmod	_	_
64	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	62	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Preben and Martha | a fine old couple |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **sit** | past | people |  |  | the bench |  | at the top of the steep stone steps; in front of people's house; both *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on bench=Location |
| 3 | **wave** | gerund | the linden tree *not said here* |  |  |  |  | above people | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme above they=Location |
| 4 | **nod** | participle | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in a gentle friendly way to passers | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in way=Theme |
| 5 | **make** | past | way | one feel |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material feel=Product |

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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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