---
title: At the edge of a wood there lived an old man who had only one son, a… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At the edge of a wood there lived an old man who had only one son, and one day he called the boy to him and said he wanted some corn ground, but the youth must be sure never to enter any mill where the miller was beardless. Who acts: old man, man, youth, miller. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book»
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Finest Liar in the World, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At the edge of a wood there lived an old man who had only one son, and one day he called the boy to him and said he wanted some corn ground, but the youth must be sure never to enter any mill where the miller was beardless.

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**Who acts:** old man, man, youth, miller · **What happens:** live, have, call, say, want, be · **To what, where:** old man, edge, one son, boy, corn ground, mill · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Finest Liar in the World. 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, youth, miller), 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:pg641:3:1
# text = At the edge of a wood there lived an old man who had only one son, and one day he called the boy to him and said he wanted some corn ground, but the youth must be sure never to enter any mill where the miller was beardless.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	_
8	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
14	only	only	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
16	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl:unmarked	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	xcomp	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	ccomp	_	_
31	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	33	det	_	_
32	corn	corn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
35	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nsubj	_	_
38	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
39	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	cop	_	_
40	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
41	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	43	advmod	_	_
42	to	to	PART	TO	_	43	mark	_	_
43	enter	enter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	xcomp	_	_
44	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	45	det	_	_
45	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obj	_	_
46	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	50	advmod	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	miller	miller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	nsubj	_	_
49	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	50	cop	_	_
50	beardless	beardless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a old man |  | the edge of a wood; there |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme man=Location |
| 2 | **have** | past | a old man | one son |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **call** | past | man | the boy | boy |  | day |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **want** | past | man | some corn ground |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot ground=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | must | the youth |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **not** **enter** | to-infinitive | the youth *not said here* | any mill |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme mill=Destination |
| 8 | **is** | past | the miller |  |  |  |  | beardless *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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