---
title: The needle was sewing away all by itself and making the neatest litt… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The needle was sewing away all by itself and making the neatest little stitches, such as Labakan had never been able to make even at his best. Who acts: needle. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35, sentence 122

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The needle was sewing away all by itself and making the neatest little stitches, such as Labakan had never been able to make even at his best.

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**Who acts:** needle · **What happens:** sew away, make, not be · **To what, where:** neatest little stitches, best

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (needle), 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:pg2435:35:122
# text = The needle was sewing away all by itself and making the neatest little stitches, such as Labakan had never been able to make even at his best.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	needle	needle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	sewing	sew	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	away	away	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	all	all	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	neatest	neat	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	14	amod	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	stitches	stitch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|ExtPos=ADP	18	case	_	_
17	as	as	ADP	IN	_	16	fixed	_	_
18	Labakan	Labakan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	cop	_	_
22	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	parataxis	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	even	even	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sew away** | past · progressive | the needle |  |  |  |  | by work; away *property* | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme by itself=Destination |
| 2 | **make** | gerund | the needle *not said here* | the neatest little stitches |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset stitch=Product |
| 3 | **not** **is** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | such Labakan; able *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **make** | to-infinitive |  | master's best |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset good=Product |

<!-- .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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