---
title: 'It seems to me,' said the old fellow, 'that a boy should give way t… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'It seems to me,' said the old fellow, 'that a boy should give way to an old man.' Who acts: It, boy. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 38, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 38, sentence 91

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'It seems to me,' said the old fellow, 'that a boy should give way to an old man.'

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**Who acts:** It, boy · **What happens:** seem, say, give · **To what, where:** me, old fellow, way, old man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 38. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, boy), 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:pg3027:38:91
# text = 'It seems to me,' said the old fellow, 'that a boy should give way to an old man.'
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
13	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
19	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | present | It |  | me |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the old fellow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **give** | should | a boy | way | a old man |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent way=Theme to man=Recipient |

<!-- .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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