---
title: Now in the cottage dwelt an old woman, her cat, and a hen; and it wa… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now in the cottage dwelt an old woman, her cat, and a hen; and it was really they, and not she, who were masters of the house. Who acts: cat, hens. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 9, sentence 49

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Now in the cottage dwelt an old woman, her cat, and a hen; and it was really they, and not she, who were masters of the house.

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**Who acts:** cat, hens · **What happens:** dwell, be, not be · **To what, where:** old woman, cottage, hens, masters

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cat, hens), 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:pg3027:9:49
# text = Now in the cottage dwelt an old woman, her cat, and a hen; and it was really they, and not she, who were masters of the house.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	cottage	cottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
5	dwelt	dwell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	hen	hen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	really	really	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
25	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
28	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	masters	master	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dwell** | past |  | a old woman |  | the cottage | now | a hen *obl* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme woman=Location |
| 2 | **is a** | past | cat | hens *= hen* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **is a** | past | hens *= hen* | masters |  |  |  | of the house | tree rules |

<!-- .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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