---
title: One day the old man was sitting in front of his cottage, as he was v… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One day the old man was sitting in front of his cottage, as he was very fond of doing, when he saw flying towards him a little sparrow, followed by a big black raven. Who acts: old man, man. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 36, with its dependency tree an
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/36/47/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 36, sentence 47

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One day the old man was sitting in front of his cottage, as he was very fond of doing, when he saw flying towards him a little sparrow, followed by a big black raven.

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**Who acts:** old man, man · **What happens:** sit, be, do, see, fly, follow · **To what, where:** front, little sparrow

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, man), 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:pg5615:36:47
# text = One day the old man was sitting in front of his cottage, as he was very fond of doing, when he saw flying towards him a little sparrow, followed by a big black raven.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	cottage	cottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	very	very	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	parataxis	_	_
19	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
20	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
25	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	xcomp	_	_
26	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	followed	follow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	conj	_	_
33	by	by	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
35	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
36	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	raven	raven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | the old man |  |  | front of man's cottage | day |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in front=Location |
| 2 | **is** | past | man |  |  |  |  | fond *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** | gerund | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **see** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **fly** | gerund | man *not said here* | a little sparrow |  |  |  | towards man | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme towards he=Destination |
| 6 | **follow** | participle | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by a big black raven | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by raven=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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