---
title: An old fisherman was chosen to stand near the boat to watch fair pla… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: An old fisherman was chosen to stand near the boat to watch fair play, and to hold the stakes, and Andras, as the stranger was told to jump first. Who acts: stranger. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 36, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 36, sentence 73

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
An old fisherman was chosen to stand near the boat to watch fair play, and to hold the stakes, and Andras, as the stranger was told to jump first.

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**Who acts:** stranger · **What happens:** choose, stand, watch, hold, tell, jump · **To what, where:** old fisherman, boat, fair play, stakes, stranger · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg3027:36:73
# text = An old fisherman was chosen to stand near the boat to watch fair play, and to hold the stakes, and Andras, as the stranger was told to jump first.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	fisherman	fisherman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	chosen	choose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	near	near	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
13	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	play	play	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	stakes	stake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	Andras	Andras	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj:pass	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	jump	jump	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **choose** | past · passive |  | a old fisherman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **stand** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | the boat |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent near boat=Location |
| 3 | **watch** | to-infinitive |  | fair play |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent play=Theme |
| 4 | **hold** | to-infinitive |  | the stakes |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stake=Theme |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | the stranger |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **jump** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the stranger *not said here* |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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