---
title: The next morning a boy knocked at the door, bidding him attend the b… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The next morning a boy knocked at the door, bidding him attend the burial of the man who was dead, and he was just going to get up when his wife stopped him. Who acts: boy, man, wife. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 36, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 36, sentence 63

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The next morning a boy knocked at the door, bidding him attend the burial of the man who was dead, and he was just going to get up when his wife stopped him.

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**Who acts:** boy, man, wife · **What happens:** knock, bid, attend, be, go, get up · **To what, where:** boy, burial, man

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, man, wife), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg3454:3245`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg3454:36:63
# text = The next morning a boy knocked at the door, bidding him attend the burial of the man who was dead, and he was just going to get up when his wife stopped him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	knocked	knock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	bidding	bid	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	attend	attend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	burial	burial	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	acl:relcl	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	just	just	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	up	up	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
34	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
35	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obj	_	_
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **knock** | past | a boy |  |  |  | morning | at the door | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at door=Patient |
| 2 | **bid** | gerund | a boy *not said here* | boy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **attend** | infinitive | a boy *not said here* | the burial of the man |  |  |  |  | vn attend-107.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme burial=Goal |
| 4 | **is** | past | the man |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **go** | past · progressive | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **get up** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 7 | **stop** | past | man's wife | man |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector he=Eventuality |
| 8 | **bury** |  |  | the man |  |  |  |  | nom burial «event transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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