---
title: 'Have you returned with empty hands?' asked the old man, as his son… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Have you returned with empty hands?' asked the old man, as his son opened the door. Who acts: you, son. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 34, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 34, sentence 98

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'Have you returned with empty hands?' asked the old man, as his son opened the door.

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**Who acts:** you, son · **What happens:** return, ask, open · **To what, where:** old man, door

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, son), 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:pg3027:34:98
# text = 'Have you returned with empty hands?' asked the old man, as his son opened the door.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	returned	return	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	parataxis	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **return** | present · perfect | you |  |  |  |  | with empty hands | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | the old man |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent man=Recipient |
| 3 | **open** | past | man's son | the door |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location door=Theme |

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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 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.

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