---
title: The old man who was driving the oxen told them that in the lifetime… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The old man who was driving the oxen told them that in the lifetime of his father the horses had many a hard battle with the wild beasts that were now exterminated. Who acts: old man, horses. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 2, sentence 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old man who was driving the oxen told them that in the lifetime of his father the horses had many a hard battle with the wild beasts that were now exterminated.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old man, horses · **What happens:** drive, tell, have, exterminate · **To what, where:** oxen, many, lifetime, wild beasts · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, 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 (old man, horses), 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:pg27200:159:81
# text = The old man who was driving the oxen told them that in the lifetime of his father the horses had many a hard battle with the wild beasts that were now exterminated.
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	9	nsubj	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	driving	drive	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	acl:relcl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	oxen	ox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	lifetime	lifetime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
21	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	obj	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod	_	_
29	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	32	obj	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
31	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	32	advmod	_	_
32	exterminated	exterminate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drive** | past · progressive | the old man | the oxen |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ox=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the old man |  | oxen *= ox* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **have** | past | the horses | many |  | the lifetime of man's father |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **exterminate** | past · passive |  | the wild beasts |  |  | now |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: that=Patient |

<!-- .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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