---
title: The little boy one day heard his parents say, "The old man opposite… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The little boy one day heard his parents say, "The old man opposite is very well off, but is terribly lonely." Who acts: little boy, parents, old man opposite. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old House, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old House, sentence 22

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The little boy one day heard his parents say, "The old man opposite is very well off, but is terribly lonely."

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**Who acts:** little boy, parents, old man opposite · **What happens:** hear, say, be · **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 House. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little boy, parents, old man opposite), 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:pg27200:131:22
# text = The little boy one day heard his parents say, "The old man opposite is very well off, but is terribly lonely."
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	opposite	opposite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
17	very	very	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	19	advmod	_	_
19	off	off	ADV	RB	_	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	terribly	terribly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	lonely	lonely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the little boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | boy's parents |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the old man opposite |  |  |  |  | off, well *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  | lonely, terribly *property* | 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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