---
title: ‘What does a shrivelled old grey thing like that want with a pretty… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What does a shrivelled old grey thing like that want with a pretty young bride?’ thought the brothers, and went on their way. Who acts: shrivelled old grey thing. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/21/107/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 107

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘What does a shrivelled old grey thing like that want with a pretty young bride?’ thought the brothers, and went on their way.

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**Who acts:** shrivelled old grey thing · **What happens:** do, want, think, go · **To what, where:** shrivelled old grey thing, brothers, way

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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 (shrivelled old grey thing), 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:pg5615:21:107
# text = ‘What does a shrivelled old grey thing like that want with a pretty young bride?’ thought the brothers, and went on their way.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
3	does	do	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	parataxis	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
5	shrivelled	shrivelled	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
9	like	like	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	nsubj	_	_
11	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	bride	bride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
19	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present |  | a shrivelled old grey thing |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality |
| 2 | **want** | present | a shrivelled old grey thing | a shrivelled old grey thing *not said here* |  |  |  | with a pretty young bride | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot thing=Theme |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  | the brothers |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot brother=Theme |
| 4 | **go** | past |  |  |  | brides's way |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on way=Location |

<!-- .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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