---
title: An old grandfather sat and told his little grandson all this about H… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: An old grandfather sat and told his little grandson all this about Holger Danske, and the boy knew that what his grandfather told him must be true. Who acts: old grandfather, boy, grandfather. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Holger Danske, with its dependenc
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Holger Danske, sentence 10

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An old grandfather sat and told his little grandson all this about Holger Danske, and the boy knew that what his grandfather told him must be true.

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**Who acts:** old grandfather, boy, grandfather · **What happens:** sit, tell, know, be · **To what, where:** this, little grandson, Holger · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Holger Danske. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old grandfather, boy, grandfather), 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:pg27200:50:10
# text = An old grandfather sat and told his little grandson all this about Holger Danske, and the boy knew that what his grandfather told him must be true.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	grandfather	grandfather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	grandson	grandson	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	iobj	_	_
10	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	11	det:predet	_	_
11	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	obl	_	_
12	about	about	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	Holger	Holger	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
14	Danske	Danske	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
21	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	28	nsubj	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	grandfather	grandfather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	_
26	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	cop	_	_
28	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | a old grandfather |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | a old grandfather *not said here* | this | Holger's little grandson |  |  | about Holger | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent grandson=Recipient about holger=Topic |
| 3 | **know** | past | the boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Holger's grandfather |  | Holger |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 5 | **is** | must |  |  |  |  |  | true *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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