---
title: The old man had not been waiting very long before he saw a cloud of… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old man had not been waiting very long before he saw a cloud of dust in the far distance, and knew that it must be the procession of the Daimio. Who acts: old man, man, cloud. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Envious Neighbour, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Envious Neighbour, sentence 45

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old man had not been waiting very long before he saw a cloud of dust in the far distance, and knew that it must be the procession of the Daimio.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old man, man, cloud · **What happens:** not wait, see, know, be, cloud · **To what, where:** cloud, procession, dust · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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, cloud), 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:pg641:18:45
# text = The old man had not been waiting very long before he saw a cloud of dust in the far distance, and knew that it must be the procession of the Daimio.
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	7	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
6	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	aux	_	_
7	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	very	very	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
10	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	cloud	cloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	far	far	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
26	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	cop	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	procession	procession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	ccomp	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	Daimio	Daimio	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **wait** | past · perfect · progressive | the old man |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | past | man | a cloud of dust |  |  |  | in the far distance | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer cloud=Stimulus |
| 3 | **know** | past | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is a** | must | cloud | the procession |  |  |  | of the Daimio | tree rules |
| 5 | **cloud** |  |  | dust |  |  |  | in the far distance | nom cloud «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient in=obl |

<!-- .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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