---
title: The wood-cutter’s wife was looking out of the window when the mules… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The wood-cutter’s wife was looking out of the window when the mules drew up before the door, so heavily laden that they almost sank under their burdens. Who acts: wife, mules. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 104

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The wood-cutter’s wife was looking out of the window when the mules drew up before the door, so heavily laden that they almost sank under their burdens.

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**Who acts:** wife, mules · **What happens:** look out, draw up, lade, sink, burden · **To what, where:** window, burdens

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, mules), 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:pg3282:21:104
# text = The wood-cutter’s wife was looking out of the window when the mules drew up before the door, so heavily laden that they almost sank under their burdens.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	cutter	cutter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’s	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	mules	mule	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
17	up	up	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	before	before	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
23	heavily	heavily	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	laden	lade	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	sank	sink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
29	under	under	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	burdens	burden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look out** | past · progressive | the wood cutter's wife | the window |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **draw up** | past | the mules |  |  |  | before the door |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **lade** | participle | the wood cutter's wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  | heavily *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **sink** | past | mules *= mule* |  |  | mules's burdens |  | almost *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **burden** |  | mules *= mule* |  |  |  |  |  | nom burden «cognition transitive»: 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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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