---
title: The poor prisoner had only a little straw for his bed, and but for a… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The poor prisoner had only a little straw for his bed, and but for a little stream of water which flowed through the tower he would have died of thirst. Who acts: poor prisoner, little stream, prisoner. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, with its depe
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The poor prisoner had only a little straw for his bed, and but for a little stream of water which flowed through the tower he would have died of thirst.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** poor prisoner, little stream, prisoner · **What happens:** have, flow, die · **To what, where:** little straw, tower

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor prisoner, little stream, prisoner), 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:pg503:28:24
# text = The poor prisoner had only a little straw for his bed, and but for a little stream of water which flowed through the tower he would have died of thirst.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	prisoner	prisoner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	only	only	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	straw	straw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
21	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
22	flowed	flow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
23	through	through	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	aux	_	_
29	died	die	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	acl:relcl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	thirst	thirst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the poor prisoner | a little straw |  |  |  | for prisoner's bed | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent straw=Patient |
| 2 | **flow** | past | a little stream of water |  |  | the tower |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through tower=Location |
| 3 | **die** | would · perfect | prisoner | the tower *not said here* |  |  |  | of thirst | tree rules |

<!-- .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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