---
title: One day the old witch happened to want a little boy, so she threw he… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One day the old witch happened to want a little boy, so she threw her ball in the direction of the hunters’ huts. Who acts: old witch, witch. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 88

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One day the old witch happened to want a little boy, so she threw her ball in the direction of the hunters’ huts.

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**Who acts:** old witch, witch · **What happens:** happen, want, throw · **To what, where:** little boy, ball, direction

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old witch, witch), 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:pg3282:6:88
# text = One day the old witch happened to want a little boy, so she threw her ball in the direction of the hunters’ huts.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	direction	direction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	hunters	hunter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	huts	hut	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | the old witch |  |  |  | day |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **want** | to-infinitive | the old witch *not said here* | a little boy |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot boy=Theme |
| 3 | **throw** | past | witch | witch's ball |  | the direction of the hunters's huts |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent ball=Theme in direction=Destination |

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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 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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