---
title: The thread had to be fine and even, and when done was locked up in a… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The thread had to be fine and even, and when done was locked up in a secret chamber by the old woman, who twice or thrice every summer went a journey. Who acts: thread, old woman, summer. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, with its dependency tree 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The thread had to be fine and even, and when done was locked up in a secret chamber by the old woman, who twice or thrice every summer went a journey.

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**Who acts:** thread, old woman, summer · **What happens:** have, be, do, lock up, go · **To what, where:** secret chamber, journey

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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 (thread, old woman, summer), 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:pg503:26:5
# text = The thread had to be fine and even, and when done was locked up in a secret chamber by the old woman, who twice or thrice every summer went a journey.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	thread	thread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
6	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	even	even	ADV	RB	_	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
12	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	advcl	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	locked	lock	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
15	up	up	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	secret	secret	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	chamber	chamber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
20	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
26	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	28	advmod	_	_
27	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	thrice	thrice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	conj	_	_
29	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	30	det	_	_
30	summer	summer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	parataxis	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the thread |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive | the thread *not said here* |  |  |  |  | fine *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** | participle | the old woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **lock up** | past · passive | the old woman |  |  | a secret chamber |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **go** | past | every summer | a journey |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location journey=Theme |

<!-- .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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