---
title: When the old man came to take away the plate which had contained the… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the old man came to take away the plate which had contained the Crab’s dinner, he found it full of gold, and as the same thing happened every day he soon became very fond of the Crab. Who acts: old man, man, same thing, thing. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Cra
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Golden Crab(5), sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the old man came to take away the plate which had contained the Crab’s dinner, he found it full of gold, and as the same thing happened every day he soon became very fond of the Crab.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old man, man, same thing, thing · **What happens:** come, take away, contain, find, happen, become · **To what, where:** plate, dinner, day

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Crab(5). 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, same thing, thing), 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:pg640:7:15
# text = When the old man came to take away the plate which had contained the Crab’s dinner, he found it full of gold, and as the same thing happened every day he soon became very fond of the Crab.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	away	away	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	plate	plate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	contained	contain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl:relcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Crab	Crab	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’s	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	_
17	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
27	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
32	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	33	det	_	_
33	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl:unmarked	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
35	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	36	advmod	_	_
36	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	acl:relcl	_	_
37	very	very	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	xcomp	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	Crab	Crab	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **take away** | to-infinitive | the old man *not said here* | the plate |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plate=Theme |
| 3 | **contain** | past · perfect · passive |  | the plate |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **find** | past | man | dinner |  |  |  | full *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 5 | **happen** | past | the same thing |  |  |  | day |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **become** | past | thing | every day *not said here* |  |  |  | fond, soon *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Patient day=Result |

<!-- .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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