---
title: The old man did not understand what good the sword would do, however… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old man did not understand what good the sword would do, however he took it down, and the young man went his way. Who acts: old man, sword, young man. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 27, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 27, sentence 35

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The old man did not understand what good the sword would do, however he took it down, and the young man went his way.

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**Who acts:** old man, sword, young man · **What happens:** not understand, do, take down, go · **To what, where:** best, way

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 27. 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, sword, young 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:pg2435:27:35
# text = The old man did not understand what good the sword would do, however he took it down, and the young man went his way.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	obj	_	_
8	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	however	however	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	down	down	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **understand** | past · do-support | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 2 | **do** | would | the sword |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **take down** | past | sword | best *= good* |  |  |  | however *property* | vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **go** | past | the young man | sword's way |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location way=Theme |

<!-- .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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