---
title: “Bless me!” said the old woman as one thing after another appeared;… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Bless me!” said the old woman as one thing after another appeared; and she wanted to know where her husband had got the mill from, but he would not tell her that. Who acts: old woman, another, woman, husband. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Why the Sea Is Salt, with its dependen
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/20/28/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [Why the Sea Is Salt](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/20/) / 28

# The Blue Fairy Book, Why the Sea Is Salt, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Bless me!” said the old woman as one thing after another appeared; and she wanted to know where her husband had got the mill from, but he would not tell her that.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old woman, another, woman, husband, mill · **What happens:** bless, say, appear, want, know, get · **To what, where:** old woman, mill, that, woman · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Why the Sea Is Salt. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old woman, another, woman, husband), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg503:20:28
# text = “Bless me!” said the old woman as one thing after another appeared; and she wanted to know where her husband had got the mill from, but he would not tell her that.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Bless	bless	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
3	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
13	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	another	another	PRON	DT	PronType=Ind	15	nsubj	_	_
15	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	26	advmod	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	got	get	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	ccomp	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
31	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
33	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
34	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	35	advmod	_	_
35	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
36	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	iobj	_	_
37	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bless** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the old woman *= woman* |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: express* | past | the old woman |  |  |  |  | as one thing | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **appear** | past | another |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **want** | past | woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **know** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **get** | past · perfect | woman's husband | the mill |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer mill=Stimulus |
| 7 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | would | mill | that | woman |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient that=Topic |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/20/27/)
- next →: [sentence 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/20/29/)
- ↑ back to [Why the Sea Is Salt](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/20/)