---
title: Just at that moment the old man entered the stable, and sat down to… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Just at that moment the old man entered the stable, and sat down to milk the cow himself, but not a drop of milk could he get. Who acts: old man, maiden. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 2, sentence 43

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Just at that moment the old man entered the stable, and sat down to milk the cow himself, but not a drop of milk could he get.

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**Who acts:** old man, maiden · **What happens:** enter, sit down, get · **To what, where:** stable, cow, drop

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 2. 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, maiden), 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:pg641:10:43
# text = Just at that moment the old man entered the stable, and sat down to milk the cow himself, but not a drop of milk could he get.
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	entered	enter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	stable	stable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
14	down	down	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	advcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
19	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	drop	drop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
27	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **enter** | past | the old man | the stable |  |  | moment |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme stable=Destination |
| 2 | **sit down** | past | the old man *not said here* | the cow |  |  |  | maiden *obl* | tree rules |
| 3 | **get** | could | maiden | a drop of milk |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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