---
title: When they grew older, things became worse and worse, and at last one… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When they grew older, things became worse and worse, and at last one day as they were walking through a wood the elder youth seized hold of the other, tied him to a tree, and went on his way hoping that the boy might starve to death. Who acts: sons, things, elder youth, boy. A sentence of «The Pink 
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 72

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When they grew older, things became worse and worse, and at last one day as they were walking through a wood the elder youth seized hold of the other, tied him to a tree, and went on his way hoping that the boy might starve to death.

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**Who acts:** sons, things, elder youth, boy · **What happens:** grow, become, walk, seize, tie, go · **To what, where:** last one day, wood, hold, youth, way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sons, things, elder youth, boy), 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:pg5615:1:72
# text = When they grew older, things became worse and worse, and at last one day as they were walking through a wood the elder youth seized hold of the other, tied him to a tree, and went on his way hoping that the boy might starve to death.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
4	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
6	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	worse	bad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	xcomp	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	worse	bad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	walking	walk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	acl	_	_
21	through	through	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
27	seized	seize	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	acl	_	_
28	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
33	tied	tie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
34	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
40	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
41	on	on	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obl	_	_
44	hoping	hope	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	40	advcl	_	_
45	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	49	mark	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
47	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	nsubj	_	_
48	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	49	aux	_	_
49	starve	starve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	ccomp	_	_
50	to	to	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
51	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past | sons *= son* |  |  |  |  | old *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **become** | past | things |  |  |  |  | bad *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **walk** | past · progressive | sons *= son* | last one day  the elder youth *not said here* |  | a wood |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent day=Theme through wood=Trajectory |
| 4 | **seize** | participle | the elder youth *not said here* | hold of the other |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme |
| 5 | **tie** | past | things *not said here* | youth |  |  | day | to a tree | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent he=Patient to tree=Co-Patient |
| 6 | **go** | past | things *not said here* |  |  | youth's way |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on way=Location |
| 7 | **hope** | gerund | things *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 8 | **starve** | might | the boy |  |  |  |  | to death | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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