---
title: Her distaff turned of itself and her spindle span by itself and the… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Her distaff turned of itself and her spindle span by itself and the flax wound itself off; and however much she might use there was always plenty left. Who acts: distaff, girl, plenty. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 1, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 80

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Her distaff turned of itself and her spindle span by itself and the flax wound itself off; and however much she might use there was always plenty left.

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**Who acts:** distaff, girl, plenty · **What happens:** turn, use, be, leave · **To what, where:** plenty

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, 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 (distaff, girl, plenty), 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:pg2435:1:80
# text = Her distaff turned of itself and her spindle span by itself and the flax wound itself off; and however much she might use there was always plenty left.
1	Her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	distaff	distaff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	spindle	spindle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	span	span	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	9	nmod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	flax	flax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	wound	wound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
16	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	15	nmod:unmarked	_	_
17	off	off	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	however	however	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	much	much	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	use	use	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
25	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	26	expl	_	_
26	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	_
27	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	26	advmod	_	_
28	plenty	plenty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
29	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past | girl's distaff |  |  |  |  | of distaff | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme of itself=Trajectory |
| 2 | **use** | might | girl |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **be** | past | plenty |  |  | there |  | always *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **leave** | participle |  | plenty *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=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 Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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