---
title: Take this sieve to the well, and fill it with water, and bring it ho… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Take this sieve to the well, and fill it with water, and bring it home to me without spilling one drop by the way.' Who acts: you. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 10, sentence 78

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Take this sieve to the well, and fill it with water, and bring it home to me without spilling one drop by the way.'

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** take, fill, bring, spill · **To what, where:** sieve, well, me, one drop

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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 (you), 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:pg3027:10:78
# text = Take this sieve to the well, and fill it with water, and bring it home to me without spilling one drop by the way.'
1	Take	take	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	sieve	sieve	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	well	well	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	fill	fill	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	bring	bring	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	home	home	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	_
20	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	spilling	spill	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
22	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nummod	_	_
23	drop	drop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | imperative | you *not said here* | this sieve |  | the well |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent sieve=Theme to well=Destination |
| 2 | **fill** | infinitive | you *not said here* | sieve |  |  |  | with water | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with water=Instrument |
| 3 | **bring** | infinitive | you *not said here* | sieve | me |  |  | home *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme to i=Destination |
| 4 | **spill** | gerund | you *not said here* | one drop |  |  |  | by the way | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location drop=Theme |

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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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