---
title: ‘Come in, my young friend,’ said the old man; ‘my house is not large… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Come in, my young friend,’ said the old man; ‘my house is not large, but it is big enough to hold a stranger.’ Who acts: old man, house. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Canary, sentence 41

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‘Come in, my young friend,’ said the old man; ‘my house is not large, but it is big enough to hold a stranger.’

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**Who acts:** old man, house · **What happens:** come in, say, not be, be, hold · **To what, where:** stranger · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, house), 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:pg540:40:41
# text = ‘Come in, my young friend,’ said the old man; ‘my house is not large, but it is big enough to hold a stranger.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
3	in	in	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	conj	_	_
26	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come in** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **is** | present | my house |  |  |  |  | large *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | present | house |  |  |  |  | big, enough *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **hold** | to-infinitive | house *not said here* | a stranger |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stranger=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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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