---
title: "In the early ages of the world," said the old man, "these people co… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "In the early ages of the world," said the old man, "these people could not be found in Switzerland. Who acts: old man. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, I. Little Rudy, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, I. Little Rudy, sentence 25

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"In the early ages of the world," said the old man, "these people could not be found in Switzerland.

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**Who acts:** old man · **What happens:** say, not find · **To what, where:** early ages, people, Switzerland · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, I. Little Rudy. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man), 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:pg27200:52:25
# text = "In the early ages of the world," said the old man, "these people could not be found in Switzerland.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	In	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	early	early	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	ages	age	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	Switzerland	Switzerland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old man |  |  |  | in the early ages of the world |  | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent in age=Manner |
| 2 | **not** **find** *in a quote* | could · passive |  | this people |  | Switzerland |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |

<!-- .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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