---
title: When he was admitted to his presence, he knelt down and touched the… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he was admitted to his presence, he knelt down and touched the ground with his forehead, and the king bade him stand up and tell wherefore he had come. Who acts: rage. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 41

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When he was admitted to his presence, he knelt down and touched the ground with his forehead, and the king bade him stand up and tell wherefore he had come.

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**Who acts:** rage · **What happens:** admit, kneel down, touch, stand up, tell, come · **To what, where:** rage, presence, ground, king bade · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rage), 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:pg3454:21:41
# text = When he was admitted to his presence, he knelt down and touched the ground with his forehead, and the king bade him stand up and tell wherefore he had come.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	admitted	admit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	presence	presence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	knelt	kneel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	down	down	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	forehead	forehead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	bade	bade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	stand	stand	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
26	up	up	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	conj	_	_
29	wherefore	wherefore	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	32	advmod	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	28	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **admit** *speech: other* | past · passive |  | rage | rage's presence |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Topic to presence=Recipient |
| 2 | **kneel down** | past | rage |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **touch** | past | rage *not said here* | the ground |  |  |  | with rage's forehead | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent ground=Experiencer with forehead=Instrument |
| 4 | **stand up** | present |  | the king bade |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **come** | past · perfect | rage |  |  |  |  | wherefore *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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