---
title: He was an old Chinaman, who could nod his head, and used to pretend… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He was an old Chinaman, who could nod his head, and used to pretend that he was the grandfather of the shepherdess, although he could not prove it. Who acts: beard, old Chinaman. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shepherdess and the Sheep, with its depende
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Shepherdess and the Sheep, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was an old Chinaman, who could nod his head, and used to pretend that he was the grandfather of the shepherdess, although he could not prove it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** beard, old Chinaman · **What happens:** be, nod, use, pretend, not prove · **To what, where:** old Chinaman, head, grandfather, shepherdess

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shepherdess and the Sheep. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (beard, old Chinaman), 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:pg27200:166:15
# text = He was an old Chinaman, who could nod his head, and used to pretend that he was the grandfather of the shepherdess, although he could not prove it.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	Chinaman	Chinaman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	nod	nod	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	pretend	pretend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	grandfather	grandfather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	xcomp	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	shepherdess	shepherdess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	prove	prove	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | beard | a old Chinaman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **nod** | could | a old Chinaman | beard's head |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 3 | **use** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **pretend** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** | past | beard | the grandfather |  |  |  | of the shepherdess | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **prove** | could | beard | shepherdess |  |  |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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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