---
title: ‘When I was about three an old man arrived at our house, and begged… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘When I was about three an old man arrived at our house, and begged my nurse to let him come in and rest, as he could walk no longer. Who acts: I, three, man. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/4/25/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/4/) / 25

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 4, sentence 25

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘When I was about three an old man arrived at our house, and begged my nurse to let him come in and rest, as he could walk no longer.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, three, man · **What happens:** be, arrive, beg, let, come in, rest · **To what, where:** three, house, nurse, man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, three, man), 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:pg3454:4:25
# text = ‘When I was about three an old man arrived at our house, and begged my nurse to let him come in and rest, as he could walk no longer.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	about	about	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nsubj	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	arrived	arrive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
17	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	in	in	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	rest	rest	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	parataxis	_	_
31	no	no	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | I | three |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **arrive** | past | three |  |  | our house |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | three *not said here* | my nurse |  |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent nurse=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **let** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **come in** | infinitive | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **rest** | infinitive | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **walk** | could | man |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/4/24/)
- next →: [sentence 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/4/26/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/4/)