---
title: When his uncle became communicative, he would relate stories of his… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: When his uncle became communicative, he would relate stories of his youthful days, and farther back still of the warlike times in which his father had lived. Who acts: uncle, father. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, III. the Uncle, with its dependency tree an
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, III. the Uncle, sentence 17

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When his uncle became communicative, he would relate stories of his youthful days, and farther back still of the warlike times in which his father had lived.

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**Who acts:** uncle, father · **What happens:** become, relate, live · **To what, where:** stories

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, III. the Uncle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (uncle, father), 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:pg27200:54:17
# text = When his uncle became communicative, he would relate stories of his youthful days, and farther back still of the warlike times in which his father had lived.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	uncle	uncle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
5	communicative	communicative	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	relate	relate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	youthful	youthful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	farther	far	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	conj	_	_
18	back	back	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	still	still	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	warlike	warlike	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	obl	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	lived	live	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | past | current's uncle |  |  |  |  | communicative *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **relate** | would | uncle | stories of uncle's youthful days |  |  |  |  | vn involve-107.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent story=Theme |
| 3 | **live** | past · perfect | uncle's father |  |  |  | in the warlike times |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in which=Location |

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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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