---
title: At last there came an old, grey-bearded man who looked at the horse… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At last there came an old, grey-bearded man who looked at the horse and agreed to buy it; but the moment he touched it the horse began to kick and plunge. ' Who acts: old bearded man, man, moment. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 39, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 39, sentence 63

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At last there came an old, grey-bearded man who looked at the horse and agreed to buy it; but the moment he touched it the horse began to kick and plunge. '

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old bearded man, man, moment · **What happens:** come, look, agree, buy, touch, begin · **To what, where:** horse

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 39. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old bearded man, man, moment), 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:pg3027:39:63
# text = At last there came an old, grey-bearded man who looked at the horse and agreed to buy it; but the moment he touched it the horse began to kick and plunge. '
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
3	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	4	expl	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	bearded	bearded	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	agreed	agree	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	kick	kick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	plunge	plunge	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
37	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | a old bearded man |  |  | there |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **look** | past | a old bearded man |  |  |  |  | at the horse | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at horse=Theme |
| 3 | **agree** *speech: agree* | past | a old bearded man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **buy** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | a old bearded man *not said here* | horse |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **touch** | past | man | horse |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Stimulus it=Experiencer horse=Result |
| 6 | **begin** | past | the moment |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 7 | **kick** | to-infinitive | the moment *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |
| 8 | **plunge** | infinitive | the moment *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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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