---
title: The old man would read aloud about Africa, with its great forests an… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The old man would read aloud about Africa, with its great forests and the wild elephants, while his wife would listen attentively, stealing a glance now and then at the clay elephants, which served as flower-pots. Who acts: old man, wife, clay elephants. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Street Lamp, sentence 96

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The old man would read aloud about Africa, with its great forests and the wild elephants, while his wife would listen attentively, stealing a glance now and then at the clay elephants, which served as flower-pots.

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**Who acts:** old man, wife, clay elephants · **What happens:** read, listen, steal, serve · **To what, where:** glance

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Street Lamp. 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, wife, clay elephants), 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:pg27200:133:96
# text = The old man would read aloud about Africa, with its great forests and the wild elephants, while his wife would listen attentively, stealing a glance now and then at the clay elephants, which served as flower-pots.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	aloud	aloud	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	about	about	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Africa	Africa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	forests	forest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	elephants	elephant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
24	attentively	attentively	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	stealing	steal	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	glance	glance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	29	conj	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	clay	clay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	_
35	elephants	elephant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
37	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	38	nsubj	_	_
38	served	serve	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	acl:relcl	_	_
39	as	as	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
40	flower	flower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	40	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	pots	pot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **read** | would | the old man |  |  |  |  | about Africa; with world's great forests and the wild elephants; aloud *property* | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about africa=Topic |
| 2 | **listen** | would | man's wife |  |  |  |  | attentively *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **steal** | gerund | man's wife *not said here* | a glance |  |  | now | at the clay elephants | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location glance=Theme |
| 4 | **serve** | past | the clay elephants |  |  |  |  | as flower pots | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent as pot=Attribute |

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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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