---
title: At the edge of the stream sat an old hermit with a long white beard,… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At the edge of the stream sat an old hermit with a long white beard, who neither spoke nor moved as the king approached, but sat throwing into the stream dry leaves which lay scattered about the ground near him. Who acts: long white beard, king, dry leaves. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by An
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, sentence 21

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At the edge of the stream sat an old hermit with a long white beard, who neither spoke nor moved as the king approached, but sat throwing into the stream dry leaves which lay scattered about the ground near him.

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**Who acts:** long white beard, king, dry leaves · **What happens:** sit, speak, move, approach, throw, lie · **To what, where:** old hermit, edge, dry leaves, stream · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (long white beard, king, dry leaves), 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:pg3282:33:21
# text = At the edge of the stream sat an old hermit with a long white beard, who neither spoke nor moved as the king approached, but sat throwing into the stream dry leaves which lay scattered about the ground near him.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	hermit	hermit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	beard	beard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
18	neither	neither	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
20	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	21	cc	_	_
21	moved	move	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	approached	approach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
29	throwing	throw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	advcl	_	_
30	into	into	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
33	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	_
35	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	36	nsubj	_	_
36	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	acl:relcl	_	_
37	scattered	scatter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	36	xcomp	_	_
38	about	about	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	_
41	near	near	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past |  | a old hermit |  | the edge of the stream |  | with a long white beard | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent hermit=Theme at edge=Location |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | a long white beard |  |  |  |  | neither *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **move** | past | a long white beard *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **approach** | past | the king |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **sit** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **throw** | gerund |  | dry leaves |  |  |  | into the stream *result* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer leaf=Theme into stream=Result |
| 7 | **lie** | past | dry leaves |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **scatter** | participle | dry leaves *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the ground near king | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme about ground=Destination |

<!-- .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 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.

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