---
title: The old woman returned in the night and knew by the tarnished thread… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old woman returned in the night and knew by the tarnished thread what had happened in her absence. Who acts: old woman, tarnished thread, thread. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old woman returned in the night and knew by the tarnished thread what had happened in her absence.

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**Who acts:** old woman, tarnished thread, thread · **What happens:** return, know, tarnish, happen, absent · **To what, where:** old woman, absence

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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 (old woman, tarnished thread, thread), 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:pg503:26:22
# text = The old woman returned in the night and knew by the tarnished thread what had happened in her absence.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	returned	return	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
9	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	tarnished	tarnish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	amod	_	_
13	thread	thread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	absence	absence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **return** | participle |  | the old woman *not said here* |  |  | night |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **know** | past | the old woman |  |  |  |  | by the tarnished thread | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **tarnish** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **happen** | past · perfect | the tarnished thread |  |  | thread's absence |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in absence=Location |
| 5 | **absent** |  | thread |  |  |  |  |  | nom absence «state 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.

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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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