---
title: The witch, who was looking on, saw that as long as the youth had pos… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The witch, who was looking on, saw that as long as the youth had possession of the sword, all her schemes would be in vain, and tried to steal the sword in the night, but it only jumped out of its scabbard and sliced off her nose, which was of iron. Who acts: witch, youth, schemes, possession. A sen
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The witch, who was looking on, saw that as long as the youth had possession of the sword, all her schemes would be in vain, and tried to steal the sword in the night, but it only jumped out of its scabbard and sliced off her nose, which was of iron.

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**Who acts:** witch, youth, schemes, possession, nose, sword · **What happens:** look on, see, have, be, try, steal · **To what, where:** that, possession, sword, scabbard

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (witch, youth, schemes, possession), 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:pg2435:8:18
# text = The witch, who was looking on, saw that as long as the youth had possession of the sword, all her schemes would be in vain, and tried to steal the sword in the night, but it only jumped out of its scabbard and sliced off her nose, which was of iron.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	acl:relcl	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
9	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	obj	_	_
11	as	as	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	9	advmod	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
17	possession	possession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
22	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	24	det:predet	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	schemes	scheme	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	cop	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	steal	steal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
40	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
41	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
42	only	only	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
43	jumped	jump	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
44	out	out	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
45	of	of	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
46	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	47	nmod:poss	_	_
47	scabbard	scabbard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	_
48	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
49	sliced	slice	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	conj	_	_
50	off	off	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
52	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
54	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	57	nsubj	_	_
55	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	57	cop	_	_
56	of	of	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
57	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look on** | past · progressive | the witch |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **see** | past | the witch | that |  |  |  | long *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus |
| 3 | **have** | past | the youth | possession of the sword |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent possession=Patient |
| 4 | **is** | would | sword's schemes |  |  |  |  | vain *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **try** | past | the witch *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **steal** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the witch *not said here* | the sword |  |  | night |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location sword=Theme |
| 7 | **jump out** | past | possession | possession's scabbard |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme scabbard=Trajectory |
| 8 | **slice** | past | possession *not said here* |  |  |  |  | off sword's nose and iron | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 9 | **is** | past | sword's nose and iron |  |  |  |  | of iron | tree rules |
| 10 | **possess** |  |  | the sword |  |  |  |  | nom possession «act transitive»: of=patient |
| 11 | **scheme** |  | sword |  |  |  |  |  | nom scheme «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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