--- title: An old man clothed in skins, and holding a staff in his hand, stood… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: An old man clothed in skins, and holding a staff in his hand, stood in the doorway; and he said to the young chief who was beginning to tell his story, ‘I was waiting for you, wherefore you have come I know. Who acts: old man, way, young chief, I. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/28/20/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [In the Land of Souls (21)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/28/) / 20 # The Yellow Fairy Book, In the Land of Souls (21), sentence 20 An old man clothed in skins, and holding a staff in his hand, stood in the doorway; and he said to the young chief who was beginning to tell his story, ‘I was waiting for you, wherefore you have come I know. **Who acts:** old man, way, young chief, I, you · **What happens:** clothe, hold, stand, say, begin, tell · **To what, where:** old man, staff, hand, doorway, young chief, story · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, In the Land of Souls (21). 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, way, young chief, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg640:28:20 # text = An old man clothed in skins, and holding a staff in his hand, stood in the doorway; and he said to the young chief who was beginning to tell his story, ‘I was waiting for you, wherefore you have come I know. 1 An a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 2 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 3 amod _ _ 3 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 16 nsubj _ _ 4 clothed clothe VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 3 acl _ _ 5 in in ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 6 skins skin NOUN NNS Number=Plur 4 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 7 , , PUNCT , _ 16 punct _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 16 cc _ _ 9 holding hold VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 16 advcl _ _ 10 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 11 staff staff NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obj _ _ 12 in in ADP IN _ 14 case _ _ 13 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 14 nmod:poss _ _ 14 hand hand NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 15 , , PUNCT , _ 9 punct _ _ 16 stood stand VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 17 in in ADP IN _ 19 case _ _ 18 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 19 det _ _ 19 doorway doorway NOUN NN Number=Sing 16 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 20 ; ; PUNCT : _ 23 punct _ _ 21 and and CCONJ CC _ 23 cc _ _ 22 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 23 nsubj _ _ 23 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 16 parataxis _ _ 24 to to ADP IN _ 27 case _ _ 25 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 27 det _ _ 26 young young ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 27 amod _ _ 27 chief chief NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 obl _ _ 28 who who PRON WP PronType=Rel 30 nsubj _ _ 29 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 30 aux _ _ 30 beginning begin VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 27 acl:relcl _ _ 31 to to PART TO _ 32 mark _ _ 32 tell tell VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 30 xcomp _ _ 33 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 34 nmod:poss _ _ 34 story story NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 35 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 36 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 39 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 37 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 39 nsubj _ _ 38 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 39 aux _ _ 39 waiting wait VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 23 advcl _ _ 40 for for ADP IN _ 41 case _ _ 41 you you PRON PRP Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs 39 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 42 , , PUNCT , _ 46 punct _ _ 43 wherefore wherefore ADV WRB PronType=Int 46 advmod _ _ 44 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 46 nsubj _ _ 45 have have AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 46 aux _ _ 46 come come VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 23 conj _ _ 47 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 48 nsubj _ _ 48 know know VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 46 ccomp _ SpaceAfter=No 49 . . PUNCT . _ 16 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **clothe** | participle | | a old man *not said here* | | | | in skins | vn dress-41.1.1-1-2 «Passive»: agent=Pivot in skin=Theme | | 2 | **hold** | gerund | a old man *not said here* | a staff | | way's hand | | | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent staff=Theme in hand=Location | | 3 | **stand** | past | a old man | | | the doorway | | | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in doorway=Location | | 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | way | | the young chief | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to chief=Recipient | | 5 | **begin** | past · progressive | the young chief | | | | | | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | | 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | the young chief *not said here* | way's story | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Recipient | | 7 | **wait** | past · progressive | I | | | | | for you | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 8 | **come** | present · perfect | you | | | | | wherefore *property* | tree rules | | 9 | **know** | present | I | | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | 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. **Text:** «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order. - ← previous: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/28/19/) - next →: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/28/21/) - ↑ back to [In the Land of Souls (21)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/28/)