---
title: One night in the spring, when the ice had melted, and the snow was g… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One night in the spring, when the ice had melted, and the snow was gone, the sisters sat spinning in the house, awaiting their husbands' return. Who acts: snow, sisters, husbands. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 26, sentence 91

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One night in the spring, when the ice had melted, and the snow was gone, the sisters sat spinning in the house, awaiting their husbands' return.

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**Who acts:** snow, sisters, husbands · **What happens:** melt, be, sit, spin, await, return · **To what, where:** One night, house, return

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (snow, sisters, husbands), 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:pg3027:26:91
# text = One night in the spring, when the ice had melted, and the snow was gone, the sisters sat spinning in the house, awaiting their husbands' return.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	spring	spring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	11	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	melted	melt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	gone	gone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
21	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
22	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	xcomp	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	awaiting	await	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	conj	_	_
28	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	husbands	husband	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	'	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	_
31	return	return	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **melt** | past · perfect · passive |  | One night in the spring |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Result |
| 2 | **is** | past | the snow |  |  |  |  | gone *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **sit** | past | the sisters |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **spin** | gerund | the sisters *not said here* |  |  | the house |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme in house=Trajectory |
| 5 | **await** | gerund | the sisters *not said here* | sisters's husbands's return |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **return** |  | sisters's husbands |  |  |  |  |  | nom return «communication intransitive»: 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 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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