---
title: The eel-breeder of Fjaltring had an uncle at Old Skjagen, who was a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The eel-breeder of Fjaltring had an uncle at Old Skjagen, who was a fisherman, but also a prosperous merchant with ships upon the sea; he was said to be a good old man, and it would not be a bad thing to enter his service. Who acts: eel breeder, uncle, ship, breeder. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Ha
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 3, sentence 89

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The eel-breeder of Fjaltring had an uncle at Old Skjagen, who was a fisherman, but also a prosperous merchant with ships upon the sea; he was said to be a good old man, and it would not be a bad thing to enter his service.

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**Who acts:** eel breeder, uncle, ship, breeder · **What happens:** have, be, say, not be, enter, service · **To what, where:** uncle, Old Skjagen, fisherman, breeder, good old man, bad thing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eel breeder, uncle, ship, breeder), 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:pg27200:160:89
# text = The eel-breeder of Fjaltring had an uncle at Old Skjagen, who was a fisherman, but also a prosperous merchant with ships upon the sea; he was said to be a good old man, and it would not be a bad thing to enter his service.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	eel	eel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	breeder	breeder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Fjaltring	Fjaltring	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	uncle	uncle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	Old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	Skjagen	Skjagen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	fisherman	fisherman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	also	also	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	prosperous	prosperous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
26	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	parataxis	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
34	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	cop	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
36	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
37	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
41	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
42	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	47	aux	_	_
43	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	47	advmod	_	_
44	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	47	cop	_	_
45	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
46	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	parataxis	_	_
48	to	to	PART	TO	_	49	mark	_	_
49	enter	enter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	47	acl	_	_
50	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	51	nmod:poss	_	_
51	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the eel breeder of Fjaltring | a uncle and a fisherman |  | Old Skjagen |  | a prosperous merchant with ships upon the sea *obl* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent uncle=Patient |
| 2 | **is a** | past | a uncle and a fisherman | a fisherman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | breeder |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic |
| 4 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | a good old man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **is a** | would | ship | a bad thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **enter** | to-infinitive | the eel breeder of Fjaltring *not said here* | breeder's service |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme service=Destination |
| 7 | **service** |  | breeder |  |  |  |  |  | nom service «act transitive»: poss=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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