---
title: Then she told the raven how her thread had lost its brightness, how… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then she told the raven how her thread had lost its brightness, how terribly angry the old woman was, and how she feared some great disaster. Who acts: thread, old woman. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then she told the raven how her thread had lost its brightness, how terribly angry the old woman was, and how she feared some great disaster.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** thread, old woman · **What happens:** tell, lose, be, fear · **To what, where:** raven, thread, great disaster · **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 (thread, 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:pg503:26:29
# text = Then she told the raven how her thread had lost its brightness, how terribly angry the old woman was, and how she feared some great disaster.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	raven	raven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	thread	thread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	ccomp	_	_
11	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	brightness	brightness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
15	terribly	terribly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	parataxis	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	feared	fear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
26	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	det	_	_
27	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	disaster	disaster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | thread | the raven |  |  | then |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent raven=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **lose** | past · perfect · passive |  | thread's thread |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | the old woman |  |  |  |  | angry, terribly *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **fear** | past | thread | some great disaster |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer disaster=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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