---
title: He had his knapsack on his back, and a sword at his side; he had bee… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He had his knapsack on his back, and a sword at his side; he had been to the wars, and was now returning home. Who acts: soldier. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Tinder-box, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Tinder-box, sentence 2

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He had his knapsack on his back, and a sword at his side; he had been to the wars, and was now returning home.

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**Who acts:** soldier · **What happens:** have, be, return · **To what, where:** knapsack, back

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Tinder-box. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (soldier), 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:pg27200:193:2
# text = He had his knapsack on his back, and a sword at his side; he had been to the wars, and was now returning home.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	knapsack	knapsack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
18	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	cop	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	wars	war	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	_
26	returning	return	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
27	home	home	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | soldier | soldier's knapsack |  | soldier's back |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knapsack=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past · perfect | soldier |  |  |  |  | to the wars | tree rules |
| 3 | **return** | past · progressive | soldier *not said here* |  |  |  | now | home *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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