---
title: On their way they came to a small cottage standing quite by itself i… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: On their way they came to a small cottage standing quite by itself in a wood; and before the door stood an old, old man, who accosted the brothers saying, ‘Hullo, you young fellows! Who acts: spirits, small cottage, old old man, you. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 103

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On their way they came to a small cottage standing quite by itself in a wood; and before the door stood an old, old man, who accosted the brothers saying, ‘Hullo, you young fellows!

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**Who acts:** spirits, small cottage, old old man, you · **What happens:** come, stand, accost, say, fellow · **To what, where:** way, wood, old old man, door, brothers · **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 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (spirits, small cottage, old old man, you), 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:pg5615:21:103
# text = On their way they came to a small cottage standing quite by itself in a wood; and before the door stood an old, old man, who accosted the brothers saying, ‘Hullo, you young fellows!
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	cottage	cottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	acl	_	_
11	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obl	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	before	before	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
22	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
23	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
24	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
26	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
30	accosted	accost	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	acl:relcl	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	_
33	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
35	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	40	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	Hullo	hullo	INTJ	UH	_	40	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
38	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
39	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	fellows	fellow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | spirits *= spirit* |  |  | spirits's way |  | to a small cottage | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to cottage=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **stand** | gerund | a small cottage *not said here* |  |  | a wood |  | by cottage | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by itself=Location |
| 3 | **stand** | past | spirits *= spirit* *not said here* | a old old man |  | the door |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent man=Theme before door=Destination |
| 4 | **accost** | past | a old old man | the brothers |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | spirits *= spirit* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **fellow** |  | you |  |  |  |  |  | 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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