---
title: The old man could not believe his eyes when he saw the multitudes of… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old man could not believe his eyes when he saw the multitudes of horses, oxen and sheep standing before his door. Who acts: old man, Peter, sheep. 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 clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 27, sentence 80

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The old man could not believe his eyes when he saw the multitudes of horses, oxen and sheep standing before his door.

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**Who acts:** old man, Peter, sheep · **What happens:** not believe, see, stand · **To what, where:** eyes, multitudes, door

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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, Peter, sheep), 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:pg2435:27:80
# text = The old man could not believe his eyes when he saw the multitudes of horses, oxen and sheep standing before his door.
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	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	multitudes	multitude	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	oxen	ox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
20	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	acl	_	_
21	before	before	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **believe** | could | the old man | man's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer eye=Stimulus |
| 2 | **see** | past | Peter | the multitudes of horses and oxen and sheep |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer multitude=Stimulus |
| 3 | **stand** | gerund | sheep *not said here* |  |  | Peter's door |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before door=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:** «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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