---
title: When they reached the hut where Ball-Carrier had fasted so many year… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When they reached the hut where Ball-Carrier had fasted so many years ago, the old woman spoke for the first time since they had started on their way. Who acts: witches, old woman. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 46

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When they reached the hut where Ball-Carrier had fasted so many years ago, the old woman spoke for the first time since they had started on their way.

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**Who acts:** witches, old woman · **What happens:** reach, fast, speak, start · **To what, where:** hut, Ball, way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (witches, old woman), 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:pg3282:8:46
# text = When they reached the hut where Ball-Carrier had fasted so many years ago, the old woman spoke for the first time since they had started on their way.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	hut	hut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	11	advmod	_	_
7	Ball	Ball	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	Carrier	Carrier	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	fasted	fast	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl:relcl	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl:unmarked	_	_
15	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	24	amod	_	_
24	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	started	start	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
29	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | witches *= witch* | the hut |  |  |  | ago *property* | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent hut=Theme |
| 2 | **fast** | past · perfect · passive |  | Ball and Carrier |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | the old woman |  |  |  | time |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **start** | past · perfect | witches *= witch* |  |  | witches's way |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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