---
title: "A few years before this time the old couple had had their grave-sto… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "A few years before this time the old couple had had their grave-stone prepared, with an inscription and their names, but not the date. Who acts: few years, things. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Grave-stone, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Grave-stone, sentence 30

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"A few years before this time the old couple had had their grave-stone prepared, with an inscription and their names, but not the date.

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**Who acts:** few years, things · **What happens:** have, prepare, name · **To what, where:** grave stone, inscription

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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 (few years, things), 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:pg27200:130:30
# text = "A few years before this time the old couple had had their grave-stone prepared, with an inscription and their names, but not the date.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
5	before	before	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
14	grave	grave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
17	prepared	prepare	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	inscription	inscription	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	names	name	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	date	date	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *in a quote* | past · perfect | a few years before this time | things's grave stone |  |  |  | the date *obl* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Patient |
| 2 | **prepare** *in a quote* | participle | a few years before this time *not said here* | a inscription and things's names |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent inscription=Patient |
| 3 | **name** *in a quote* |  | things *= thing* |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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