---
title: The fairies always supplied me with flax for my spinning, and by gre… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The fairies always supplied me with flax for my spinning, and by great diligence I made enough cord for a ladder that would reach to the foot of the tower; but, alas! just as my prince was helping me to descend it, the crossest and ugliest of the old fairies flew in. Who acts: fairies, I, ladder, pr
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/24/93/)

<!-- 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/) / [The White Cat, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/24/) / 93

# The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 2, sentence 93

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The fairies always supplied me with flax for my spinning, and by great diligence I made enough cord for a ladder that would reach to the foot of the tower; but, alas! just as my prince was helping me to descend it, the crossest and ugliest of the old fairies flew in.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fairies, I, ladder, prince, me, ugliest · **What happens:** supply, make, reach, help, descend, fly in · **To what, where:** me, enough cord, cord

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fairies, I, ladder, prince), 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:pg503:24:93
# text = The fairies always supplied me with flax for my spinning, and by great diligence I made enough cord for a ladder that would reach to the foot of the tower; but, alas! just as my prince was helping me to descend it, the crossest and ugliest of the old fairies flew in.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	4	advmod	_	_
4	supplied	supply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	flax	flax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	spinning	spinning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	diligence	diligence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
18	enough	enough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	cord	cord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	ladder	ladder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	acl:relcl	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	56	punct	_	_
33	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	56	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	alas	alas	INTJ	UH	_	42	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	35	punct	_	_
37	just	just	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
38	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
39	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
41	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
42	helping	help	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	56	advcl	_	_
43	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	42	obj	_	_
44	to	to	PART	TO	_	45	mark	_	_
45	descend	descend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	xcomp	_	_
46	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
49	crossest	cross	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	51	nsubj	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	ugliest	ugly	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	56	nsubj	_	_
52	of	of	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
54	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	55	amod	_	_
55	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	51	obl	_	_
56	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
57	in	in	ADV	RB	_	56	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **supply** | past | the fairies |  | me |  |  | with flax; for my spinning; always *property* | vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP-Fulfilling PP.theme»: agent=Agent i=Recipient with flax=Theme |
| 2 | **make** | past | I | enough cord |  |  |  | by great diligence; for a ladder | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP P.asset»: agent=Agent cord=Product for ladder=Asset |
| 3 | **reach** | would | a ladder |  |  |  |  | to the foot of the tower | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **help** | past · progressive | my prince | me |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary clause=Theme |
| 5 | **descend** | to-infinitive | me *not said here* | cord |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme |
| 6 | **fly in** | past | the ugliest |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **spin** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom spinning «act 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.

<!-- 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 92](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/24/92/)
- next →: [sentence 94](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/24/94/)
- ↑ back to [The White Cat, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/24/)