---
title: In the Court there were two young fellows, one of eighteen years old… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In the Court there were two young fellows, one of eighteen years old, the other of nineteen, who were very fond of playing chess, and often sat long inside playing at it. Who acts: two young fellows. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), with its depe
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the Court there were two young fellows, one of eighteen years old, the other of nineteen, who were very fond of playing chess, and often sat long inside playing at it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** two young fellows · **What happens:** be, play, sit · **To what, where:** Court, chess

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (two young fellows), 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:pg640:47:34
# text = In the Court there were two young fellows, one of eighteen years old, the other of nineteen, who were very fond of playing chess, and often sat long inside playing at it.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	5	expl	_	_
5	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
7	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	fellows	fellow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	eighteen	eighteen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nmod	_	_
13	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl:unmarked	_	_
14	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	nsubj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	nineteen	nineteen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	very	very	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
25	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
27	chess	chess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	often	often	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
32	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	31	advmod	_	_
33	inside	inside	ADP	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
34	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	advcl	_	_
35	at	at	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | two young fellows |  |  | the Court; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in court=Location |
| 2 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | fond *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **play** | gerund |  | chess |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chess=Theme |
| 4 | **sit** | past | two young fellows *not said here* |  |  |  |  | long, often *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **play** | gerund | two young fellows *not said here* |  |  | chess |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: 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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