---
title: At last there knocked at the gate a little old man with a long white… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At last there knocked at the gate a little old man with a long white beard, and said, ‘Will you give me work, so that I may earn my bread?’ Who acts: you, I. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At last there knocked at the gate a little old man with a long white beard, and said, ‘Will you give me work, so that I may earn my bread?’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, I · **What happens:** knock, say, give, work, earn · **To what, where:** little old man, gate, me, bread · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, I), 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:pg5615:19:32
# text = At last there knocked at the gate a little old man with a long white beard, and said, ‘Will you give me work, so that I may earn my bread?’
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADV	RB	_	4	obl	_	_
3	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	knocked	knock	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	beard	beard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
21	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	Will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
25	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	_
26	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
28	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	32	mark	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	fixed	_	_
30	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	earn	earn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
33	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **knock** | participle |  | a little old man |  | the gate; there |  | with a long white beard | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent man=Theme at last=Destination |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **give** | future | you |  | me |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **work** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **earn** | may | I | my bread |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bread=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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