---
title: Just as the old man was leaving the house the little dog under the t… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Just as the old man was leaving the house the little dog under the table began to bark, saying: Who acts: old man, leaving. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of King Frost (26), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Story of King Frost (26), sentence 31

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Just as the old man was leaving the house the little dog under the table began to bark, saying:

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**Who acts:** old man, leaving · **What happens:** leave, begin, bark, say · **To what, where:** house, table · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of King Frost (26). 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, leaving), 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:pg640:37:31
# text = Just as the old man was leaving the house the little dog under the table began to bark, saying:
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
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	leaving	leave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	csubj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
13	under	under	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
16	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	bark	bark	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave** | past · progressive | the old man | the house |  | the table |  |  | vn sustain-55.6-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent house=Theme dog=Attribute |
| 2 | **begin** | past | leaving |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **bark** | to-infinitive | leaving *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | leaving *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 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.

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