--- title: Petru picked out the oldest, and blackest, and most decayed pair of… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: Petru picked out the oldest, and blackest, and most decayed pair of reins, and brought them to the old woman, who murmured something over them and sprinkled them with incense, and held them out to the young man. Who acts: Petru, old woman. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fa --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/19/87/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/19/) / 87 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1, sentence 87 Petru picked out the oldest, and blackest, and most decayed pair of reins, and brought them to the old woman, who murmured something over them and sprinkled them with incense, and held them out to the young man. **Who acts:** Petru, old woman · **What happens:** pick out, decay, bring, murmur, sprinkle, hold out · **To what, where:** oldest, pair, bits, old woman, something This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Petru, old woman), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg641:19:87 # text = Petru picked out the oldest, and blackest, and most decayed pair of reins, and brought them to the old woman, who murmured something over them and sprinkled them with incense, and held them out to the young man. 1 Petru Petru PROPN NNP Number=Sing 2 nsubj _ _ 2 picked pick VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 out out ADP RP _ 2 compound:prt _ _ 4 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 5 det _ _ 5 oldest old ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 2 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 6 , , PUNCT , _ 8 punct _ _ 7 and and CCONJ CC _ 8 cc _ _ 8 blackest black ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 2 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 9 , , PUNCT , _ 12 punct _ _ 10 and and CCONJ CC _ 12 cc _ _ 11 most most ADV RBS Degree=Sup 12 advmod _ _ 12 decayed decay VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 conj _ _ 13 pair pair NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 obj _ _ 14 of of ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 15 reins rein NOUN NNS Number=Plur 13 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 16 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 17 and and CCONJ CC _ 18 cc _ _ 18 brought bring VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 conj _ _ 19 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 18 obj _ _ 20 to to ADP IN _ 23 case _ _ 21 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 23 det _ _ 22 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 23 amod _ _ 23 woman woman NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 24 , , PUNCT , _ 26 punct _ _ 25 who who PRON WP PronType=Rel 26 nsubj _ _ 26 murmured murmur VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 23 acl:relcl _ _ 27 something something PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 26 obj _ _ 28 over over ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 29 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 27 nmod _ _ 30 and and CCONJ CC _ 31 cc _ _ 31 sprinkled sprinkle VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 26 conj _ _ 32 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 31 obj _ _ 33 with with ADP IN _ 34 case _ _ 34 incense incense NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 35 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 36 and and CCONJ CC _ 37 cc _ _ 37 held hold VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 conj _ _ 38 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 37 obj _ _ 39 out out ADP RP _ 37 compound:prt _ _ 40 to to ADP IN _ 43 case _ _ 41 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 43 det _ _ 42 young young ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 43 amod _ _ 43 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 37 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 44 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **pick out** | past | Petru | the oldest | | | | | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent old=Patient | | 2 | **decay** | past | Petru *not said here* | pair of reins | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **bring** | past | Petru *not said here* | bits *= bit* | the old woman | | | | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme to woman=Destination | | 4 | **murmur** *speech: other* | past | the old woman | something | | | | over bits *= bit* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Topic | | 5 | **sprinkle** | past | the old woman *not said here* | bits *= bit* | | | | with incense | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Destination with incense=Theme | | 6 | **hold out** | past | Petru *not said here* | bits *= bit* | | | | to the young man | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/19/86/) - next →: [sentence 88](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/19/88/) - ↑ back to [The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/19/)