---
title: The three old men stood in the middle of the loft, leaning on their… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The three old men stood in the middle of the loft, leaning on their sticks, with their long grey beards flowing down over their hands, and were talking together in low voices. Who acts: three old men, long grey beards. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderfu
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The three old men stood in the middle of the loft, leaning on their sticks, with their long grey beards flowing down over their hands, and were talking together in low voices.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** three old men, long grey beards · **What happens:** stand, lean, flow down, talk · **To what, where:** middle, sticks, hands, low voices

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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 (three old men, long grey beards), 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:pg641:4:6
# text = The three old men stood in the middle of the loft, leaning on their sticks, with their long grey beards flowing down over their hands, and were talking together in low voices.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	loft	loft	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	leaning	lean	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	sticks	stick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
20	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	beards	beard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
23	flowing	flow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	acl	_	_
24	down	down	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	over	over	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
32	together	together	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	voices	voice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | the three old men |  |  | the middle of the loft |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in middle=Location |
| 2 | **lean** | gerund | the three old men *not said here* |  |  | people's sticks |  | with people's long grey beards | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on stick=Location |
| 3 | **flow down** | gerund | people's long grey beards *not said here* |  |  | people's hands |  | down *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over hand=Location |
| 4 | **talk** | past · progressive | the three old men *not said here* |  |  | low voices |  | together *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=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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