---
title: The man was very frightened at her words, and lay absolutely still w… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The man was very frightened at her words, and lay absolutely still while the undertaker came and measured him for his coffin; and his wife gave orders to the gravedigger about his grave. Who acts: man, undertaker, wife, sun. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/30/8/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/30/) / 8

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The man was very frightened at her words, and lay absolutely still while the undertaker came and measured him for his coffin; and his wife gave orders to the gravedigger about his grave.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, undertaker, wife, sun · **What happens:** be, lay, come, measure, give, word · **To what, where:** words, man, orders, gravedigger

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, undertaker, wife, sun), 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:pg3282:30:8
# text = The man was very frightened at her words, and lay absolutely still while the undertaker came and measured him for his coffin; and his wife gave orders to the gravedigger about his grave.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	frightened	frightened	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
12	absolutely	absolutely	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	still	still	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
14	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	undertaker	undertaker	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	measured	measure	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	coffin	coffin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
29	orders	order	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	gravedigger	gravedigger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
33	about	about	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	grave	grave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the man |  |  | sun's words |  | frightened *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **lay** | infinitive | the man *not said here* |  |  |  | still | absolutely *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **come** | past | the undertaker |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **measure** | past | the undertaker *not said here* | man |  |  |  | for man's coffin | vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme he=Value |
| 5 | **give** | past | man's wife | orders | the gravedigger about man's grave |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent order=Theme to gravedigger=Recipient |
| 6 | **word** |  | sun |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/30/7/)
- next →: [sentence 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/30/9/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/30/)