---
title: We were staying in the country at a gentleman's seat, where it happe… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: We were staying in the country at a gentleman's seat, where it happened that the master was absent for a few days. Who acts: We, it, master. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Great Grief, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Great Grief, sentence 3

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We were staying in the country at a gentleman's seat, where it happened that the master was absent for a few days.

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**Who acts:** We, it, master · **What happens:** stay, happen, be · **To what, where:** country

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Great Grief. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, it, master), 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:pg27200:47:3
# text = We were staying in the country at a gentleman's seat, where it happened that the master was absent for a few days.
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	staying	stay	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	's	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	seat	seat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	15	advmod	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	absent	absent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	advcl	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stay** | past · progressive | We |  |  | the country |  | at a gentleman's seat | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in country=Location |
| 2 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | the master |  |  |  | day | absent *property* | tree rules |

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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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