---
title: “We saw him from the window of the garret where we were spinning fla… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “We saw him from the window of the garret where we were spinning flax, and we could do nothing but look at him as long as he was in sight.” Who acts: We, name. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, sentence 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“We saw him from the window of the garret where we were spinning flax, and we could do nothing but look at him as long as he was in sight.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** We, name · **What happens:** see, spin, do, look, be · **To what, where:** name, window, flax, nothing

<!-- .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 (We, name), 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:pg503:28:71
# text = “We saw him from the window of the garret where we were spinning flax, and we could do nothing but look at him as long as he was in sight.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	garret	garret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	14	advmod	_	_
12	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	acl	_	_
15	flax	flax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
21	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	20	obj	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	_
26	as	as	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	23	advmod	_	_
28	as	as	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** *in a quote* | past | We | name |  | the window of the garret |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 2 | **spin** *in a quote* | past · progressive | we | flax |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent flax=Theme |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | could | we | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Eventuality |
| 4 | **look** *in a quote* | infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at name; long *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at he=Theme |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | past | name |  |  |  |  | as sight | 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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