---
title: An old man lived in it, who wore knee-breeches, a coat with large br… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: An old man lived in it, who wore knee-breeches, a coat with large brass buttons, and a wig, which any one could see was a real wig. Who acts: old man, one, wig. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old House, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old House, sentence 19

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An old man lived in it, who wore knee-breeches, a coat with large brass buttons, and a wig, which any one could see was a real wig.

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**Who acts:** old man, one, wig · **What happens:** live, wear, see, be · **To what, where:** street, knee breeches, wig, real wig

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old House. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, one, wig), 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:pg27200:131:19
# text = An old man lived in it, who wore knee-breeches, a coat with large brass buttons, and a wig, which any one could see was a real wig.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	wore	wear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	knee	knee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	breeches	breech	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	coat	coat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
18	brass	brass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	buttons	button	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	wig	wig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	obj	_	_
26	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	27	det	_	_
27	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	acl:relcl	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	wig	wig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past | a old man |  |  | street |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in it=Location |
| 2 | **wear** | past |  | knee breeches |  |  |  | a coat with large brass buttons *obl* | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent breech=Source |
| 3 | **see** | could | any one | a wig |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer which=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is a** | past | a wig | a real wig |  |  |  |  | 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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