---
title: ‘An old man gave it to me when I was young: whoever listens to this… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘An old man gave it to me when I was young: whoever listens to this flute goes to sleep, and nothing can wake him. Who acts: old man, I, whoever, flute. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 3, sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘An old man gave it to me when I was young: whoever listens to this flute goes to sleep, and nothing can wake him.

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**Who acts:** old man, I, whoever, flute, nothing · **What happens:** give, be, listen, go, sleep, wake · **To what, where:** lid, me, man

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 3. 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, I, whoever, flute), 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:pg641:21:66
# text = ‘An old man gave it to me when I was young: whoever listens to this flute goes to sleep, and nothing can wake him.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
14	whoever	whoever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	listens	listen	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	to	to	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	flute	flute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	goes	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	26	nsubj	_	_
25	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	wake	wake	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | a old man | lid | me |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Theme to i=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** | past | I |  |  |  |  | young *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **listen** | present | whoever |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **go** | present | this flute |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **sleep** | to-infinitive | this flute *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **wake** | can | nothing | man |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent he=Patient |

<!-- .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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