---
title: In the old days, when grandpapa was quite a little boy, and ran abou… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: In the old days, when grandpapa was quite a little boy, and ran about in little red breeches and a red coat, and a feather in his cap--for that's the costume the little boys wore in his time when they were dressed in their best--many things were very different from what they are now. Who acts: grand
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Storm Shakes the Shield, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the old days, when grandpapa was quite a little boy, and ran about in little red breeches and a red coat, and a feather in his cap--for that's the costume the little boys wore in his time when they were dressed in their best--many things were very different from what they are now.

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**Who acts:** grandpapa, little boy, that, little boys, many things, things · **What happens:** be, run about, wear, dress · **To what, where:** little boy, little red breeches, feather, best

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Storm Shakes the Shield. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (grandpapa, little boy, that, little boys), 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:pg27200:184:1
# text = In the old days, when grandpapa was quite a little boy, and ran about in little red breeches and a red coat, and a feather in his cap--for that's the costume the little boys wore in his time when they were dressed in their best--many things were very different from what they are now.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
6	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	12	mark	_	_
7	grandpapa	grandpapa	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
9	quite	quite	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	12	det:predet	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	about	about	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	breeches	breech	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	coat	coat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	feather	feather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	parataxis	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	cap	cap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
34	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	37	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	costume	costume	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	nsubj	_	_
41	wore	wear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	parataxis	_	_
42	in	in	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
44	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	_
45	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	48	advmod	_	_
46	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj	_	_
47	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	aux:pass	_	_
48	dressed	dress	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	41	advcl	_	_
49	in	in	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
50	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	51	nmod:poss	_	_
51	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	54	amod	_	_
54	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	57	nsubj	_	_
55	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	57	cop	_	_
56	very	very	ADV	RB	_	57	advmod	_	_
57	different	different	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	parataxis	_	_
58	from	from	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
59	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	57	obl	_	_
60	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	62	nsubj	_	_
61	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	62	cop	_	_
62	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	59	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | grandpapa | quite little boy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **run about** | past | quite little boy *not said here* |  |  | little red breeches and a red coat |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in breech=Trajectory |
| 3 | **is** | present | that |  |  |  |  | for the costume | tree rules |
| 4 | **wear** | past | the little boys |  |  |  | time |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **dress** | past · passive |  | feather |  | feather's best |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 6 | **is** | past | many things |  |  | a feather in boy's cap and the costume |  | different *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **is** | present | things *= thing* |  |  |  |  | now *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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