---
title: At last, one day, when he was eating his dinner, the old woman who a… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At last, one day, when he was eating his dinner, the old woman who always spoke first, said to him: Who acts: noise, old woman. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 35, sentence 41

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At last, one day, when he was eating his dinner, the old woman who always spoke first, said to him:

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**Who acts:** noise, old woman · **What happens:** eat, speak, say · **To what, where:** dinner, noise · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (noise, old woman), 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:pg3027:35:41
# text = At last, one day, when he was eating his dinner, the old woman who always spoke first, said to him:
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	10	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	acl	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	appos	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
18	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	19	advmod	_	_
19	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
22	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | past · progressive | noise | noise's dinner |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dinner=Patient |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | the old woman |  |  |  |  | always, first *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | noise |  | day |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |

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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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