---
title: Before she went she gave out work for each day of her absence, and a… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Before she went she gave out work for each day of her absence, and always returned in the night, so that the girls never saw what she brought back with her, neither would she tell them whence the gold flax came, nor what it was to be used for. Who acts: thread, girls, gold flax. A sentence of «The B
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Before she went she gave out work for each day of her absence, and always returned in the night, so that the girls never saw what she brought back with her, neither would she tell them whence the gold flax came, nor what it was to be used for.

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**Who acts:** thread, girls, gold flax · **What happens:** go, give out, return, not see, bring back, tell · **To what, where:** work, girls, flax · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, girls, gold flax), 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:pg503:26:6
# text = Before she went she gave out work for each day of her absence, and always returned in the night, so that the girls never saw what she brought back with her, neither would she tell them whence the gold flax came, nor what it was to be used for.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
6	out	out	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
10	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	absence	absence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	17	advmod	_	_
17	returned	return	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
26	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
28	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	30	obj	_	_
29	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	ccomp	_	_
31	back	back	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
35	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	38	cc:preconj	_	_
36	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
37	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	_
39	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	iobj	_	_
40	whence	whence	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	44	advmod	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
42	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	compound	_	_
43	flax	flax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nsubj	_	_
44	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
46	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	47	cc	_	_
47	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	44	obl	_	_
48	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	52	nsubj:pass	_	_
49	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	52	aux	_	_
50	to	to	PART	TO	_	52	mark	_	_
51	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	52	aux:pass	_	_
52	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	47	acl:relcl	_	_
53	for	for	ADP	IN	_	52	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | thread |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **give out** | past | thread | work |  |  | day |  | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent work=Theme |
| 3 | **return** | participle | thread *not said here* |  |  |  | night | always *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **see** | past | the girls |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **bring back** | past | thread |  |  |  |  | with her *= she* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent what=Theme |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | would | thread |  | girls *= girl* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 7 | **come** | past | the gold flax |  |  |  |  | whence *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **use** | past · passive | the gold flax *not said here* | flax |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 9 | **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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