---
title: At last, one spring morning, the gudewife gave her seven heads of li… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: At last, one spring morning, the gudewife gave her seven heads of lint, saying she would take no excuse; they must be returned in three days spun into yarn. Who acts: gudewife. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, with its dependency tree and 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/31/1/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / [More English Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/) / [More English Fairy Tales, part 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/31/) / 1

# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At last, one spring morning, the gudewife gave her seven heads of lint, saying she would take no excuse; they must be returned in three days spun into yarn.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** gudewife · **What happens:** give, say, take, return, spin · **To what, where:** seven heads, her, excuse, heads, three days, yarn · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gudewife), 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:pg14241:31:1
# text = At last, one spring morning, the gudewife gave her seven heads of lint, saying she would take no excuse; they must be returned in three days spun into yarn.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
5	spring	spring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	gudewife	gudewife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	iobj	_	_
12	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	lint	lint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
21	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	22	det	_	_
22	excuse	excuse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	returned	return	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	nummod	_	_
30	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	_
31	spun	spin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	acl	_	_
32	into	into	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	yarn	yarn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | the gudewife | seven heads of lint | her *= she* |  | morning |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient head=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the gudewife *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **take** | would | gudewife | no excuse |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent excuse=Theme |
| 4 | **return** | must · passive |  | heads *= head* |  |  | day |  | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **spin** | participle |  | three days *not said here* |  | yarn |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into yarn=Trajectory |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [More English Fairy Tales, pa…, 161](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/30/161/)
- next →: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/31/2/)
- ↑ back to [More English Fairy Tales, part 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/31/)