---
title: He spoke to my father, and to a few neighbors who were there, of how… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He spoke to my father, and to a few neighbors who were there, of how lonely he should feel now she was gone, and how good and true she, his dead wife, had been during the number of years that they had passed through life together, and how they had become acquainted, and learnt to love each other. Wh
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Grave-stone, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He spoke to my father, and to a few neighbors who were there, of how lonely he should feel now she was gone, and how good and true she, his dead wife, had been during the number of years that they had passed through life together, and how they had become acquainted, and learnt to love each other.

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**Who acts:** man, few neighbors, corpse, neighbors · **What happens:** speak, be, feel, have, pass, become · **To what, where:** neighbors, life, each · **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 (man, few neighbors, corpse, neighbors), 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:pg27200:130:23
# text = He spoke to my father, and to a few neighbors who were there, of how lonely he should feel now she was gone, and how good and true she, his dead wife, had been during the number of years that they had passed through life together, and how they had become acquainted, and learnt to love each other.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	neighbors	neighbor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
18	lonely	lonely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	feel	feel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	parataxis	_	_
22	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	25	advmod	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	gone	gone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	29	advmod	_	_
29	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	conj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	conj	_	_
32	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
35	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
38	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	parataxis	_	_
39	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	38	aux	_	_
40	during	during	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	_
43	of	of	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	nmod	_	_
45	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	48	obj	_	_
46	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj:pass	_	_
47	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	aux	_	_
48	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	44	acl:relcl	_	_
49	through	through	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	_
51	together	together	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	57	cc	_	_
54	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	57	advmod	_	_
55	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	57	nsubj	_	_
56	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	57	aux	_	_
57	become	become	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	38	conj	_	_
58	acquainted	acquainted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	57	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	61	punct	_	_
60	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	61	cc	_	_
61	learnt	learn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	conj	_	_
62	to	to	PART	TO	_	63	mark	_	_
63	love	love	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	61	xcomp	_	_
64	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	63	obj	_	_
65	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	64	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | man |  |  |  |  | to my father; to a few neighbors | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to father=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | a few neighbors |  |  |  |  | there *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **feel** | should | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is** | past | corpse |  |  |  | now | gone *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** |  | corpse *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **have** | participle | corpse |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **pass** | past · perfect · passive |  | neighbors *= neighbor* |  | life |  | together *property* | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient that=Theme |
| 8 | **become** | past · perfect | neighbors *= neighbor* |  |  |  |  | acquainted *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 9 | **learn** | past | corpse *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 10 | **love** | to-infinitive | corpse *not said here* | each |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer each=Stimulus |

<!-- .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:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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