---
title: Some day, when you are an old man, you can say that the General gave… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Some day, when you are an old man, you can say that the General gave you this precept." Who acts: you, General. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1, sentence 88

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Some day, when you are an old man, you can say that the General gave you this precept."

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**Who acts:** you, General · **What happens:** be, say, give · **To what, where:** old man, precept, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (you, General), 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:pg27200:146:88
# text = Some day, when you are an old man, you can say that the General gave you this precept."
1	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	2	det	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
4	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
6	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	General	General	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	iobj	_	_
19	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	precept	precept	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | you | a old man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | can | you |  |  |  | day |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **give** | past | the General | this precept | you |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient precept=Theme |

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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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