---
title: His mother was sewing at her door when this magnificent stranger rod… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His mother was sewing at her door when this magnificent stranger rode up, and, filled with surprise, she bowed low before him. Who acts: mother, magnificent stranger, stranger. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/10/)

<!-- 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 Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/) / 10

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 14, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His mother was sewing at her door when this magnificent stranger rode up, and, filled with surprise, she bowed low before him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mother, magnificent stranger, stranger · **What happens:** sew, ride up, fill, bow · **To what, where:** door

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mother, magnificent stranger, stranger), 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:pg3027:14:10
# text = His mother was sewing at her door when this magnificent stranger rode up, and, filled with surprise, she bowed low before him.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	sewing	sew	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
9	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
10	magnificent	magnificent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
13	up	up	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	filled	fill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	conj	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
23	low	low	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	22	advmod	_	_
24	before	before	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sew** | past · progressive | camel's mother |  |  | mother's door |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination-Conative»: agent=Agent at door=Destination |
| 2 | **ride up** | past | this magnificent stranger |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **fill** | participle | this magnificent stranger *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with surprise | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with surprise=Instrument |
| 4 | **bow** | past | stranger |  |  |  | before camel | low *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before he=Location |

<!-- .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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/9/)
- next →: [sentence 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/11/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/)