---
title: The old men were sitting in front, the children were playing, and th… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old men were sitting in front, the children were playing, and the women chattering together, when the little Bunyip fell into their midst, and there was scarcely a child among them who did not know that something terrible was upon them. Who acts: old men, children, women, little Bunyip. A senten
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 100

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The old men were sitting in front, the children were playing, and the women chattering together, when the little Bunyip fell into their midst, and there was scarcely a child among them who did not know that something terrible was upon them.

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**Who acts:** old men, children, women, little Bunyip, sitting, child · **What happens:** sit, play, chatter, fall, be, not know · **To what, where:** front, midst, child · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old men, children, women, little Bunyip), 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:pg3282:8:100
# text = The old men were sitting in front, the children were playing, and the women chattering together, when the little Bunyip fell into their midst, and there was scarcely a child among them who did not know that something terrible was upon them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	34	csubj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	chattering	chatter	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
18	together	together	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	Bunyip	Bunyip	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
25	into	into	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	31	expl	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
32	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
35	among	among	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nmod	_	_
37	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	40	nsubj	_	_
38	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
39	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	40	advmod	_	_
40	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	acl:relcl	_	_
41	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
42	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	46	nsubj	_	_
43	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
44	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	cop	_	_
45	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	34	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | the old men |  |  | front |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in front=Location |
| 2 | **play** | past · progressive | the children |  |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **chatter** | gerund | the women |  |  |  |  | together *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **fall** | past | the little Bunyip |  |  |  |  | into tops's midst *result* | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into midst=Result |
| 5 | **is a** | past | sitting | a child |  |  |  | among tops *= top* | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | a child |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 7 | **is** | past | something |  |  |  |  | upon tops *= top* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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