---
title: He was, however, a diligent and hard-working man, and when he had no… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was, however, a diligent and hard-working man, and when he had no work in the smithy he was out at sea fishing, or gathering wreckage on the shore. Who acts: little, sea fishing. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was, however, a diligent and hard-working man, and when he had no work in the smithy he was out at sea fishing, or gathering wreckage on the shore.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little, sea fishing · **What happens:** work, be, have, gather · **To what, where:** diligent man, work, sea fishing, wreckage, shore

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little, sea fishing), 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:pg5615:12:21
# text = He was, however, a diligent and hard-working man, and when he had no work in the smithy he was out at sea fishing, or gathering wreckage on the shore.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
4	however	however	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
7	diligent	diligent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	working	work	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
18	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	19	det	_	_
19	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	smithy	smithy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
25	out	out	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	fishing	fishing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	gathering	gather	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	28	acl	_	_
32	wreckage	wreckage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
33	on	on	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **work** | gerund | little *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | little | a diligent man |  |  |  | however *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | little | no work |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Patient |
| 4 | **is** | past | little |  |  | sea fishing |  | in the smithy; out *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **gather** | gerund | sea fishing *not said here* | wreckage |  | the shore |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wreckage=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 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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