---
title: They were very good to the poor; they fed them and clothed them, and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They were very good to the poor; they fed them and clothed them, and in their benevolence there was judgment as well as true Christianity. Who acts: people. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Grave-stone, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Grave-stone, sentence 18

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They were very good to the poor; they fed them and clothed them, and in their benevolence there was judgment as well as true Christianity.

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**Who acts:** people · **What happens:** be, feed, clothe · **To what, where:** passers, people, benevolence judgment

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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:pg27200:130:18
# text = They were very good to the poor; they fed them and clothed them, and in their benevolence there was judgment as well as true Christianity.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	fed	feed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	clothed	clothe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	benevolence	benevolence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
20	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	judgment	judgment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
23	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	26	cc	_	_
24	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	23	fixed	_	_
25	as	as	ADP	IN	_	23	fixed	_	_
26	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	acl:relcl	_	_
27	Christianity	Christianity	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	flat	_	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 | people |  |  |  |  | to the poor; good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **feed** | past | people | passers *= passer* |  |  |  |  | vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 3 | **clothe** | past | people *not said here* | people |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 4 | **is a** | past | people *not said here* | benevolence judgment |  |  |  |  | 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:** «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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