---
title: So the mill began to grind herrings and milk pottage, and first all… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the mill began to grind herrings and milk pottage, and first all the dishes and tubs were filled, and then it came out all over the kitchen-floor. Who acts: mill, pottage. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Why the Sea Is Salt, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Why the Sea Is Salt, sentence 40

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So the mill began to grind herrings and milk pottage, and first all the dishes and tubs were filled, and then it came out all over the kitchen-floor.

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**Who acts:** mill, pottage · **What happens:** begin, grind, fill, come out · **To what, where:** herrings, dishes, kitchen floor

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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 (mill, pottage), 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:pg503:20:40
# text = So the mill began to grind herrings and milk pottage, and first all the dishes and tubs were filled, and then it came out all over the kitchen-floor.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	_	4	nsubj	_	_
4	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	grind	grind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	herrings	herring	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	pottage	pottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
13	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	14	advmod	_	_
14	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	16	det:predet	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	dishes	dish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	tubs	tub	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	conj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	filled	fill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	25	advmod	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
26	out	out	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	all	all	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
28	over	over	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
30	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the mill |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **grind** | to-infinitive | the mill *not said here* | herrings and milk pottage |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent herring=Patient |
| 3 | **fill** | past · passive |  | all dishes and tubs |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **come out** | past | pottage |  |  | the kitchen floor | then | out *property* | vn become-109.1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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 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.

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