---
title: The old man looked Elsa all up and down, as if he was taking her mea… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old man looked Elsa all up and down, as if he was taking her measure, bowed again to the lady, and left the hall. Who acts: old man, man, Elsa. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old man looked Elsa all up and down, as if he was taking her measure, bowed again to the lady, and left the hall.

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**Who acts:** old man, man, Elsa · **What happens:** look, take, bow, leave, measure · **To what, where:** Elsa, measure, hall

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald. 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, Elsa), 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:pg641:2:81
# text = The old man looked Elsa all up and down, as if he was taking her measure, bowed again to the lady, and left the hall.
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	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	Elsa	Elsa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	all	all	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	up	up	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	down	down	ADV	RB	_	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	measure	measure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
20	again	again	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | the old man | Elsa |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme elsa=Attribute |
| 2 | **take** | past · progressive | man | Elsa's measure |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent measure=Theme |
| 3 | **bow** | past |  |  |  |  | again | to the lady | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.pivot»: agent=Agent to lady=Pivot |
| 4 | **leave** | past |  | the hall |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hall=Theme |
| 5 | **measure** |  | Elsa |  |  |  |  |  | nom measure «act 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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