---
title: It happened that an old sick man who lived near by had begged to be… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It happened that an old sick man who lived near by had begged to be carried out and to be laid at the foot of the wall so that the beams of the rising sun might fall upon him, and he would be able to talk with his friends as they passed by to their work. Who acts: It, old sick man, beams, sun. A sen
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It happened that an old sick man who lived near by had begged to be carried out and to be laid at the foot of the wall so that the beams of the rising sun might fall upon him, and he would be able to talk with his friends as they passed by to their work.

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**Who acts:** It, old sick man, beams, sun · **What happens:** happen, live, beg, carry out, lay, rise · **To what, where:** foot, rising sun

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, old sick man, beams, sun), 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:pg3454:20:9
# text = It happened that an old sick man who lived near by had begged to be carried out and to be laid at the foot of the wall so that the beams of the rising sun might fall upon him, and he would be able to talk with his friends as they passed by to their work.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	sick	sick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	near	near	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	obl	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	begged	beg	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	carried	carry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	xcomp	_	_
17	out	out	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
28	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	beams	beam	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	nsubj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	rising	rise	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	amod	_	_
35	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	_
36	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
38	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
42	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
43	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	45	aux	_	_
44	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	45	cop	_	_
45	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
46	to	to	PART	TO	_	47	mark	_	_
47	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	45	xcomp	_	_
48	with	with	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	50	nmod:poss	_	_
50	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	obl	_	_
51	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	53	mark	_	_
52	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj	_	_
53	passed	pass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	advcl	_	_
54	by	by	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
55	to	to	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
56	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	57	nmod:poss	_	_
57	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | It |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **live** | past | a old sick man |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | past · perfect | a old sick man |  |  |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **carry out** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive · passive | a old sick man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114 «NP V NP» |
| 5 | **lay** | to-infinitive · passive | a old sick man *not said here* |  |  | the foot of the wall |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: at foot=Destination |
| 6 | **rise** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **fall** | might | the beams of the rising sun |  |  |  |  | upon sun | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon he=Location |
| 8 | **is** | would | sun |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **talk** | to-infinitive | sun *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with sun's friends | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with friend=Co-Agent |
| 10 | **pass** | past | beams *= beam* |  |  |  |  | by beams's work | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by work=Location |
| 11 | **beam** |  |  | the rising sun |  |  |  |  | nom beam «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 12 | **work** |  | beams *= beam* |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: 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.

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**Text:** «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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