---
title: Ah, well, so it is; then I was but a child, and now I am old, as old… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Ah, well, so it is; then I was but a child, and now I am old, as old as Preben Schwane then was. Who acts: hope, I. 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 every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Grave-stone, sentence 27

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Ah, well, so it is; then I was but a child, and now I am old, as old as Preben Schwane then was.

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**Who acts:** hope, I · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** child

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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 (hope, I), 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:pg27200:130:27
# text = Ah, well, so it is; then I was but a child, and now I am old, as old as Preben Schwane then was.
1	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	well	well	INTJ	UH	_	1	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
9	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	20	advmod	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	as	as	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	conj	_	_
24	as	as	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	Preben	Preben	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
26	Schwane	Schwane	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	flat	_	_
27	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | present | hope |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past | I | a child |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  | now | old *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as Preben; old *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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