--- title: One day three very poor old men came begging to the door, and just a… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: One day three very poor old men came begging to the door, and just as he was going to let the fierce dogs loose on them, his little daughter, Anastasia, crept close up to him and said: Who acts: poor old men, man, fierce dogs. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/4/3/) [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 Story of Three Wonderful Beggars](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/4/) / 3 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, sentence 3 One day three very poor old men came begging to the door, and just as he was going to let the fierce dogs loose on them, his little daughter, Anastasia, crept close up to him and said: **Who acts:** poor old men, man, fierce dogs · **What happens:** come, beg, go, let, lose, creep · **To what, where:** little daughter, man · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor old men, man, fierce dogs), 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:pg641:4:3 # text = One day three very poor old men came begging to the door, and just as he was going to let the fierce dogs loose on them, his little daughter, Anastasia, crept close up to him and said: 1 One one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 2 nummod _ _ 2 day day NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 obl:unmarked _ _ 3 three three NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 2 flat _ _ 4 very very ADV RB _ 5 advmod _ _ 5 poor poor ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 7 amod _ _ 6 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 7 amod _ _ 7 men man NOUN NNS Number=Plur 8 nsubj _ _ 8 came come VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 9 begging beg VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 8 xcomp _ _ 10 to to ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 door door NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 13 , , PUNCT , _ 19 punct _ _ 14 and and CCONJ CC _ 19 cc _ _ 15 just just ADV RB _ 19 advmod _ _ 16 as as SCONJ IN _ 19 mark _ _ 17 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 19 nsubj _ _ 18 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 19 aux _ _ 19 going go VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 8 advcl _ _ 20 to to PART TO _ 21 mark _ _ 21 let let VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 19 xcomp _ _ 22 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 23 fierce fierce ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 24 amod _ _ 24 dogs dog NOUN NNS Number=Plur 25 nsubj _ _ 25 loose lose VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 21 ccomp _ _ 26 on on ADP IN _ 27 case _ _ 27 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 25 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 28 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 29 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 31 nmod:poss _ _ 30 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 31 amod _ _ 31 daughter daughter NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 32 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 33 Anastasia Anastasia PROPN NNP Number=Sing 31 appos _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ _ 35 crept creep VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 8 conj _ _ 36 close close VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 35 xcomp _ _ 37 up up ADP RP _ 36 compound:prt _ _ 38 to to ADP IN _ 39 case _ _ 39 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 36 obl _ _ 40 and and CCONJ CC _ 41 cc _ _ 41 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 8 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 42 : : PUNCT : _ 41 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **come** | past | poor old men | | | | day | | tree rules | | 2 | **beg** *speech: request* | gerund | poor old men *not said here* | | | | | to the door | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent | | 3 | **go** | past · progressive | man | | | | | | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 4 | **let** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | man's little daughter | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **lose** | present | the fierce dogs | | | | | on people | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **creep** | past | poor old men *not said here* | | | | | | tree rules | | 7 | **close up** | infinitive | poor old men *not said here* | | man | | | | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient | | 8 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | poor old men *not said here* | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | 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 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/4/2/) - next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/4/4/) - ↑ back to [The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/4/)