---
title: The maidens, who were sitting at the door of their hut for coolness,… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The maidens, who were sitting at the door of their hut for coolness, saw him approaching, and the two elder were much alarmed, for they remembered the old woman’s warning; but the youngest said: “Never before have I seen anyone like him; let me have one look.” Who acts: maidens, man, youngest, old w
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/26/13/)

<!-- 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 Water-lily. the Gold-spinners](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/26/) / 13

# The Blue Fairy Book, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The maidens, who were sitting at the door of their hut for coolness, saw him approaching, and the two elder were much alarmed, for they remembered the old woman’s warning; but the youngest said: “Never before have I seen anyone like him; let me have one look.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** maidens, man, youngest, old woman · **What happens:** sit, see, approach, alarm, remember, say · **To what, where:** door, man, two elder, warning, anyone, youngest · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (maidens, man, youngest, old woman), 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:pg503:26:13
# text = The maidens, who were sitting at the door of their hut for coolness, saw him approaching, and the two elder were much alarmed, for they remembered the old woman’s warning; but the youngest said: “Never before have I seen anyone like him; let me have one look.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	maidens	maiden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	acl	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	hut	hut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	coolness	coolness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
16	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nummod	_	_
23	elder	elder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
25	much	much	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	alarmed	alarm	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	remembered	remember	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	’s	's	PART	POS	_	33	case	_	_
35	warning	warning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
37	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	40	nsubj	_	_
40	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	47	punct	_	_
42	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	47	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	Never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	44	advmod	_	_
44	before	before	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
45	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	47	aux	_	_
46	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
47	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	40	ccomp	_	_
48	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	47	obj	_	_
49	like	like	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
52	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
53	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	52	obj	_	_
54	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	52	xcomp	_	_
55	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	56	nummod	_	_
56	look	look	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	52	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	52	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | the maidens |  |  | the door of maidens's hut for coolness |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at door=Location |
| 2 | **see** | past | the maidens | man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **approach** | gerund | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **alarm** | past · passive |  | the two elder |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 5 | **remember** | past | maidens *= maiden* | the old woman's warning |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent warning=Theme |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the youngest |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 7 | **see** *in a quote* | present · perfect | the youngest *= young* | anyone |  |  |  | like man; before *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer anyone=Stimulus |
| 8 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the youngest *= young* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **have** *in a quote* | infinitive | the youngest *= young* *not said here* | one look |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent look=Patient |
| 10 | **warn** |  | the old woman |  |  |  |  |  | nom warning «communication 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 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/26/12/)
- next →: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/26/14/)
- ↑ back to [The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/26/)