---
title: He was a widower, and earned his living by carrying firewood in his… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He was a widower, and earned his living by carrying firewood in his large boat from the forest to the eel-pond and eel-weir, on the estate of Silkborg, and sometimes even to the distant town of Randers. Who acts: gentleman, widower. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. And
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Ib and Little Christina, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was a widower, and earned his living by carrying firewood in his large boat from the forest to the eel-pond and eel-weir, on the estate of Silkborg, and sometimes even to the distant town of Randers.

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**Who acts:** gentleman, widower · **What happens:** be, earn, carry, live · **To what, where:** widower, living, firewood, large boat

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ib and Little Christina. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gentleman, widower), 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:pg27200:51:12
# text = He was a widower, and earned his living by carrying firewood in his large boat from the forest to the eel-pond and eel-weir, on the estate of Silkborg, and sometimes even to the distant town of Randers.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	widower	widower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	earned	earn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	living	living	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
11	carrying	carry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
12	firewood	firewood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
17	from	from	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	eel	eel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	pond	pond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	eel	eel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	weir	weir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	estate	estate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	Silkborg	Silkborg	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
37	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	42	advmod	_	_
38	even	even	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
39	to	to	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	distant	distant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
43	of	of	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	Randers	Randers	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | gentleman | a widower and the distant town |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **earn** | past | a widower and the distant town *not said here* | gentleman's living |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent living=Theme |
| 3 | **carry** | gerund | a widower and the distant town *not said here* | firewood |  | gentleman's large boat |  | from the forest to the eel pond and eel weir and the estate of Silkborg | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent firewood=Theme from forest=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **live** |  | gentleman |  |  |  |  |  | nom living «cognition intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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