---
title: He was an old, old sailor, and she his old wife; they had already gr… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He was an old, old sailor, and she his old wife; they had already great-grandchildren, and were soon to celebrate their golden wedding, but they could not remember the date, and the elder-tree mother was sitting in the tree and looked as pleased as this one here. ' Who acts: man, name, wife, tree mo
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Elder-tree Mother, sentence 29

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He was an old, old sailor, and she his old wife; they had already great-grandchildren, and were soon to celebrate their golden wedding, but they could not remember the date, and the elder-tree mother was sitting in the tree and looked as pleased as this one here. '

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**Who acts:** man, name, wife, tree mother · **What happens:** be, wife, have, celebrate, not remember, sit · **To what, where:** old old sailor, great grandchildren, golden wedding, date, tree

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Elder-tree Mother. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, name, wife, tree mother), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:72:29
# text = He was an old, old sailor, and she his old wife; they had already great-grandchildren, and were soon to celebrate their golden wedding, but they could not remember the date, and the elder-tree mother was sitting in the tree and looked as pleased as this one here. '
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
3	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	sailor	sailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
17	already	already	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
18	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	grandchildren	grandchild	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
24	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	26	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	celebrate	celebrate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
28	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	wedding	wedding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
31	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
33	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
34	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	35	advmod	_	_
35	remember	remember	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	date	date	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
41	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	41	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	compound	_	_
44	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nsubj	_	_
45	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
46	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	conj	_	_
47	in	in	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
49	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
52	as	as	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	_
53	pleased	pleased	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	51	xcomp	_	_
54	as	as	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	56	det	_	_
56	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	obl	_	_
57	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	56	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
59	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | man | a old old sailor and man's old wife |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **wife** |  | name |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | wife | great grandchildren |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grandchild=Patient |
| 4 | **celebrate** | past | wife *not said here* | wife's golden wedding |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wedding=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **remember** | could | wife | the date |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent date=Theme |
| 6 | **sit** | past · progressive | the tree mother |  |  | the tree |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in tree=Location |
| 7 | **look** | past | wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  | pleased *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 8 | **wed** |  | wife |  |  |  |  |  | nom wedding «event transitive»: 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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