---
title: Suddenly his eyes fell on the figure of an old man, which seemed fam… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Suddenly his eyes fell on the figure of an old man, which seemed familiar to him, though he could not tell when or where he had seen it. Who acts: eyes, old man, Tiidu. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Suddenly his eyes fell on the figure of an old man, which seemed familiar to him, though he could not tell when or where he had seen it.

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**Who acts:** eyes, old man, Tiidu · **What happens:** fall, seem, not tell, see, figure · **To what, where:** figure, old man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eyes, old man, Tiidu), 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:pg2435:11:55
# text = Suddenly his eyes fell on the figure of an old man, which seemed familiar to him, though he could not tell when or where he had seen it.
1	Suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	figure	figure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
15	familiar	familiar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
24	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	29	mark	_	_
25	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	29	advmod	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past | Tiidu's eyes |  |  | the figure of a old man |  | suddenly *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on figure=Location |
| 2 | **seem** | past | a old man |  |  |  |  | familiar *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | could | Tiidu |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **see** | past · perfect | Tiidu | figure |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |
| 5 | **figure** |  |  | a old man |  |  |  |  | nom figure «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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