---
title: In his young days Simon had been one of the gayest and most active y… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In his young days Simon had been one of the gayest and most active youths of the neighbourhood, but as he grew old and stiff he found it very difficult to walk, and his faithful servant urged him to get a horse so as to save his poor old bones. Who acts: Simon, neighbourhood, faithful servant. A sen
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 1, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In his young days Simon had been one of the gayest and most active youths of the neighbourhood, but as he grew old and stiff he found it very difficult to walk, and his faithful servant urged him to get a horse so as to save his poor old bones.

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**Who acts:** Simon, neighbourhood, faithful servant · **What happens:** be, grow, find, walk, urge, get · **To what, where:** one, neighbourhood, man, horse, poor old bones

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Simon, neighbourhood, faithful servant), 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:pg7277:26:3
# text = In his young days Simon had been one of the gayest and most active youths of the neighbourhood, but as he grew old and stiff he found it very difficult to walk, and his faithful servant urged him to get a horse so as to save his poor old bones.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
5	Simon	Simon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	cop	_	_
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	0	root	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	gayest	gay	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	8	nmod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	14	advmod	_	_
14	active	active	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	youths	youth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	neighbourhood	neighbourhood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
24	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	stiff	stiff	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	conj	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	very	very	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
36	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
37	faithful	faithful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nsubj	_	_
39	urged	urge	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
40	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	iobj	_	_
41	to	to	PART	TO	_	42	mark	_	_
42	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	xcomp	_	_
43	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	_
45	so	so	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
46	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	48	mark	_	_
47	to	to	PART	TO	_	48	mark	_	_
48	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	advcl	_	_
49	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
50	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	amod	_	_
51	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	amod	_	_
52	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	48	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past · perfect | Simon | one |  |  | day | of the gayest and active youths of the neighbourhood | tree rules |
| 2 | **grow** | past | Simon |  |  |  |  | old *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **find** | past | Simon | neighbourhood |  |  |  | difficult *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 4 | **walk** | to-infinitive | neighbourhood *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **urge** | past | man's faithful servant |  | man |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **get** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | man's faithful servant *not said here* | a horse |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer horse=Stimulus |
| 7 | **save** | to-infinitive | man's faithful servant *not said here* | man's poor old bones |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bone=Theme |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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