---
title: The old man did not at all like parting with his precious treasure,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old man did not at all like parting with his precious treasure, but he never could say no, so the neighbour went off with the mortar under his arm. Who acts: old man, man, neighbour. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Envious Neighbour, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Envious Neighbour, sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old man did not at all like parting with his precious treasure, but he never could say no, so the neighbour went off with the mortar under his arm.

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**Who acts:** old man, man, neighbour · **What happens:** not do, part, not say, go off, treasure · **To what, where:** all, arm · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Envious Neighbour. 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, neighbour), 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:pg641:18:34
# text = The old man did not at all like parting with his precious treasure, but he never could say no, so the neighbour went off with the mortar under his arm.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	obl	_	_
8	like	like	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
9	parting	part	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	treasure	treasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
20	no	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	19	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
26	off	off	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	mortar	mortar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
30	under	under	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	arm	arm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **do** | past | the old man |  |  | all |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **part** | gerund | the old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with man's precious treasure | vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V PP.co-patient»: agent=Patient with treasure=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | could | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **go off** | past | the neighbour |  |  | man's arm |  | with the mortar | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme under arm=Location |
| 5 | **treasure** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom treasure «possession transitive»: poss=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 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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