---
title: He held the empty box in his hand, and as he looked he saw that the… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He held the empty box in his hand, and as he looked he saw that the fresh hand of youth had grown suddenly shrivelled, like the hand of an old, old man. Who acts: man. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 3, sentence 120

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He held the empty box in his hand, and as he looked he saw that the fresh hand of youth had grown suddenly shrivelled, like the hand of an old, old man.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** hold, look, see, grow, shrivell · **To what, where:** empty box, hand, fresh hand · **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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg5615:3:120
# text = He held the empty box in his hand, and as he looked he saw that the fresh hand of youth had grown suddenly shrivelled, like the hand of an old, old man.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	fresh	fresh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	ccomp	_	_
24	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	shrivelled	shrivell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	like	like	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
31	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
32	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
34	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | past | man | the empty box |  | man's hand |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent box=Theme in hand=Location |
| 2 | **look** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **see** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **grow** | past · perfect · passive |  | the fresh hand of youth |  |  |  | like the hand of a old old man | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **shrivell** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | 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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