---
title: He crept up to them on tiptoe, and when one old woman passed her din… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He crept up to them on tiptoe, and when one old woman passed her dinner to the other he held out his hand and took it and ate if for himself. Who acts: bird, one old woman. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 35, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He crept up to them on tiptoe, and when one old woman passed her dinner to the other he held out his hand and took it and ate if for himself.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bird, one old woman · **What happens:** creep up, pass, hold out, take, eat · **To what, where:** fields, tiptoe, dinner, other, hand

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bird, one old woman), 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:pg3027:35:20
# text = He crept up to them on tiptoe, and when one old woman passed her dinner to the other he held out his hand and took it and ate if for himself.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	up	up	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	tiptoe	tiptoe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
11	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	passed	pass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
15	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	obl	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
22	out	out	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
30	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
31	for	for	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **creep up** | past | bird |  | fields *= field* | tiptoe |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to they=Destination |
| 2 | **pass** | past | one old woman | woman's dinner | the other |  |  |  | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent dinner=Theme to other=Recipient |
| 3 | **hold out** | past | bird | bird's hand |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Theme |
| 4 | **take** | past | bird *not said here* | hand |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **eat** | past | bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for bird | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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.

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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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