---
title: The General and the General's lady talked to each other in their roo… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The General and the General's lady talked to each other in their room about the porter's son--how he knew how to behave, and to express himself with the greatest propriety. Who acts: General, George. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 2, 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 2, sentence 103

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The General and the General's lady talked to each other in their room about the porter's son--how he knew how to behave, and to express himself with the greatest propriety.

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**Who acts:** General, George · **What happens:** talk, know, behave, express · **To what, where:** room, George · **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 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (General, George), 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:pg27200:147:103
# text = The General and the General's lady talked to each other in their room about the porter's son--how he knew how to behave, and to express himself with the greatest propriety.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	General	General	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	General	General	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	's	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
8	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	8	obl	_	_
11	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	fixed	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
15	about	about	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	porter	porter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	's	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
24	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	behave	behave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	express	express	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
31	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	30	obj	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	greatest	great	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	35	amod	_	_
35	propriety	propriety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past | the General and the General's lady |  |  | General's room about the porter's son |  | to each | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to each=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **know** | past | George |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **behave** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn masquerade-29.6-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **express** | to-infinitive |  | George |  |  |  | with the greatest propriety | vn reflexive\_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |

<!-- .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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