---
title: At the sight of the yarn the old woman was struck dumb; but when at… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At the sight of the yarn the old woman was struck dumb; but when at length she found her voice she asked the girl what magician had helped her to do what no one had done before. Who acts: woman, magician, one. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 10, with its dependenc
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 10, sentence 99

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At the sight of the yarn the old woman was struck dumb; but when at length she found her voice she asked the girl what magician had helped her to do what no one had done before.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** woman, magician, one · **What happens:** strike, find, ask, help, do, sight · **To what, where:** old woman, sight, voice, length, girl, woman · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (woman, magician, one), 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:pg3027:10:99
# text = At the sight of the yarn the old woman was struck dumb; but when at length she found her voice she asked the girl what magician had helped her to do what no one had done before.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	yarn	yarn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	struck	strike	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
12	dumb	dumb	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
20	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	parataxis	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	29	obj	_	_
27	magician	magician	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	helped	help	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	ccomp	_	_
30	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
33	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	37	obj	_	_
34	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	35	det	_	_
35	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
36	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	32	advcl	_	_
38	before	before	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strike** | past · passive |  | the old woman |  | the sight of the yarn |  | dumb *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **find** | past | woman | woman's voice |  | length |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent voice=Theme at length=Asset |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | woman |  | the girl |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent girl=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **help** | past · perfect | magician | woman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **do** | to-infinitive | woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **do** | past · perfect | no one |  |  |  |  | before *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 7 | **sight** |  |  | the yarn |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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