---
title: Quick as thought, the maiden slid down the smooth trunk of the tree,… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Quick as thought, the maiden slid down the smooth trunk of the tree, and stood beside the stupid old woman, to teach her how things ought to be done. Who acts: maiden. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 71

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Quick as thought, the maiden slid down the smooth trunk of the tree, and stood beside the stupid old woman, to teach her how things ought to be done.

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**Who acts:** maiden · **What happens:** slide down, stand, teach, do · **To what, where:** smooth trunk, woman, things

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (maiden), 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:pg2435:10:71
# text = Quick as thought, the maiden slid down the smooth trunk of the tree, and stood beside the stupid old woman, to teach her how things ought to be done.
1	Quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
2	as	as	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	slid	slide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
8	down	down	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	smooth	smooth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
18	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	stupid	stupid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	teach	teach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
26	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	32	advmod	_	_
28	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
29	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **slide down** | past | the maiden | the smooth trunk of the tree |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trunk=Agent |
| 2 | **stand** | past | the maiden *not said here* |  |  |  |  | beside the stupid old woman | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent beside woman=Location |
| 3 | **teach** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | the maiden *not said here* |  | woman |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 4 | **do** | ought · passive |  | things |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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