---
title: Anything, however foolish, was good enough for this, and one day, wh… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Anything, however foolish, was good enough for this, and one day, when she could think of nothing better, she set both the girls to spin while sitting on the low wall of the well. Who acts: Anything, woman. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 10, with its dependency t
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 10, sentence 16

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Anything, however foolish, was good enough for this, and one day, when she could think of nothing better, she set both the girls to spin while sitting on the low wall of the well.

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**Who acts:** Anything, woman · **What happens:** be, think, set, spin, sit · **To what, where:** girls, low wall

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, 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 (Anything, woman), 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:pg3027:10:16
# text = Anything, however foolish, was good enough for this, and one day, when she could think of nothing better, she set both the girls to spin while sitting on the low wall of the well.
1	Anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	however	however	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	19	obl	_	_
22	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	21	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
26	both	both	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc:preconj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	spin	spin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
31	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
32	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	advcl	_	_
33	on	on	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	well	well	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Anything |  |  |  |  | for this; enough, good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | could | woman |  |  |  |  | of nothing | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **set** | past | woman | the girls |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient girl=Result |
| 4 | **spin** | to-infinitive | woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **sit** | gerund | woman *not said here* |  |  | the low wall of the well |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on wall=Location |

<!-- .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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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