---
title: The old man ate it greedily and kept the stalk in his hand, and then… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old man ate it greedily and kept the stalk in his hand, and then asked for another and another and another till he had eaten half the basketful. Who acts: old man. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 38, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/38/5/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 38, sentence 5

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The old man ate it greedily and kept the stalk in his hand, and then asked for another and another and another till he had eaten half the basketful.

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**Who acts:** old man · **What happens:** eat, keep, ask · **To what, where:** lid, stalk, hand, till

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 38. 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), 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:pg5615:38:5
# text = The old man ate it greedily and kept the stalk in his hand, and then asked for another and another and another till he had eaten half the basketful.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	greedily	greedily	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	stalk	stalk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
17	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	ccomp	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	conj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	det	_	_
24	till	till	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	conj	_	_
28	half	half	DET	PDT	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac|PronType=Ind	30	det:predet	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	basketful	basketful	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | past | the old man | lid |  |  |  | greedily *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 2 | **keep** | past | the old man *not said here* | the stalk |  | man's hand |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent stalk=Theme in hand=Location |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  |  |  | then |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **eat** | past · perfect · passive |  | another till |  |  |  |  | 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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