---
title: Now in the outskirts of the capital there lived an old man, who had… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now in the outskirts of the capital there lived an old man, who had spent his life in studying black arts--alchemy, astrology, magic, and enchantment. Who acts: outskirts, old man. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Bronze Ring, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Bronze Ring, sentence 144

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Now in the outskirts of the capital there lived an old man, who had spent his life in studying black arts--alchemy, astrology, magic, and enchantment.

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**Who acts:** outskirts, old man · **What happens:** live, spend, study · **To what, where:** old man, life, black arts

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Bronze Ring. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (outskirts, old man), 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:pg503:2:144
# text = Now in the outskirts of the capital there lived an old man, who had spent his life in studying black arts--alchemy, astrology, magic, and enchantment.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	outskirts	outskirt	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	capital	capital	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
9	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	spent	spend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	acl:relcl	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
20	studying	study	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
21	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	arts	art	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	alchemy	alchemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	astrology	astrology	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	magic	magic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	enchantment	enchantment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past | the outskirts of the capital | a old man |  |  | now | enchantment *obl* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme man=Location |
| 2 | **spend** | past · perfect | a old man | man's life |  |  |  |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Asset |
| 3 | **study** | gerund | a old man *not said here* | black arts and alchemy and astrology and magic |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent art=Topic |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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