---
title: The General was old and gray, but he had a good seat on horseback, a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The General was old and gray, but he had a good seat on horseback, and he knew it, and he rode out every day, with a groom behind him at a proper distance. Who acts: General. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1, with its dependency tree 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The General was old and gray, but he had a good seat on horseback, and he knew it, and he rode out every day, with a groom behind him at a proper distance.

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**Who acts:** General · **What happens:** be, have, know, ride out · **To what, where:** good seat, horseback, seat

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (General), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:146:41
# text = The General was old and gray, but he had a good seat on horseback, and he knew it, and he rode out every day, with a groom behind him at a proper distance.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	General	General	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	gray	gray	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	seat	seat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	horseback	horseback	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
25	out	out	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	27	det	_	_
27	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	groom	groom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
32	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nmod	_	_
34	at	at	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	proper	proper	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the General |  |  |  |  | old *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | the General *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | General | a good seat |  | horseback |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent seat=Patient |
| 4 | **know** | past | General | seat |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |
| 5 | **ride out** | past | General |  |  |  | day | with a groom behind man; at a proper distance | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=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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