---
title: One day the old man seemed sadder and more thoughtful than was commo… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One day the old man seemed sadder and more thoughtful than was common with him, and at last he said to his wife: “Listen to me, old woman!” Who acts: old man, child. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/9/67/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/9/) / 67

# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 67

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
One day the old man seemed sadder and more thoughtful than was common with him, and at last he said to his wife: “Listen to me, old woman!”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old man, child · **What happens:** seem, be, say, listen · **To what, where:** wife, last, old woman, child · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 9. 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, child), 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:pg2435:9:67
# text = One day the old man seemed sadder and more thoughtful than was common with him, and at last he said to his wife: “Listen to me, old woman!”
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	sadder	sad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	xcomp	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	10	advmod	_	_
10	thoughtful	thoughtful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
11	than	than	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	common	common	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	obl	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
26	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	Listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	ccomp	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	27	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | the old man |  |  |  | day | sad *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | with child; common *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: express* | past | child |  | child's wife | last |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to wife=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **listen** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | old woman | child |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to i=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/9/66/)
- next →: [sentence 68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/9/68/)
- ↑ back to [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/9/)