---
title: The poor old father grew very sad when he heard of the shameful cond… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The poor old father grew very sad when he heard of the shameful conduct of his elder sons, and had them called before him. Who acts: poor old father, father, sons. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 100

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The poor old father grew very sad when he heard of the shameful conduct of his elder sons, and had them called before him.

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**Who acts:** poor old father, father, sons · **What happens:** grow, hear, have, call, conduct · **To what, where:** sons, elder sons · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid. 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 father, father, sons), 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:pg7277:52:100
# text = The poor old father grew very sad when he heard of the shameful conduct of his elder sons, and had them called before him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	shameful	shameful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	conduct	conduct	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	xcomp	_	_
24	before	before	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past | the poor old father |  |  |  |  | sad *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **hear** | past | father |  |  |  |  | of the shameful conduct of emperor's elder sons | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer of conduct=Stimulus |
| 3 | **have** | past | the poor old father *not said here* | sons *= son* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **call** | participle | sons *= son* *not said here* |  |  |  | before emperor |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **conduct** |  |  | emperor's elder sons |  |  |  |  | nom conduct «act transitive»: of=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 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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