---
title: After waiting patiently for a little while, the old man fell on his… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: After waiting patiently for a little while, the old man fell on his knees, and said: “Good morning, holy father!” Who acts: old man. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 81

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After waiting patiently for a little while, the old man fell on his knees, and said: “Good morning, holy father!”

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**Who acts:** old man · **What happens:** wait, fall, say · **To what, where:** knees · **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 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), 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:pg2435:9:81
# text = After waiting patiently for a little while, the old man fell on his knees, and said: “Good morning, holy father!”
1	After	after	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
3	patiently	patiently	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
20	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	Good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	holy	holy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wait** | gerund | the old man *not said here* |  |  |  | while | patiently *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **fall** | past | the old man |  |  | hermit's knees |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on knee=Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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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