---
title: In the evening when the snowflakes fell their mother said: “Snow-whi… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In the evening when the snowflakes fell their mother said: “Snow-white, go and close the shutters,” and they drew round the fire, while the mother put on her spectacles and read aloud from a big book and the two girls listened and sat and span. Who acts: snowflakes, mother, two girls. A sentence of 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Snow-white and Rose-red, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the evening when the snowflakes fell their mother said: “Snow-white, go and close the shutters,” and they drew round the fire, while the mother put on her spectacles and read aloud from a big book and the two girls listened and sat and span.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** snowflakes, mother, two girls · **What happens:** fall, say, go, close, draw, put · **To what, where:** shutters, spectacles, big book · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Snow-white and Rose-red. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (snowflakes, mother, two girls), 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:pg503:36:14
# text = In the evening when the snowflakes fell their mother said: “Snow-white, go and close the shutters,” and they drew round the fire, while the mother put on her spectacles and read aloud from a big book and the two girls listened and sat and span.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	snowflakes	snowflake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	close	close	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	shutters	shutter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
27	round	round	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
34	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
35	on	on	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	spectacles	spectacle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	read	read	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	conj	_	_
40	aloud	aloud	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
41	from	from	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
42	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
43	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	48	nummod	_	_
48	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	nsubj	_	_
49	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	conj	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	49	conj	_	_
52	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
53	span	span	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past | the snowflakes |  |  |  | evening |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | snowflakes's mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **go** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **close** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the shutters |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shutter=Patient |
| 5 | **draw** | past | snowflakes *= snowflake* |  |  |  |  | round the fire | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **put** | past | the mother |  |  | mother's spectacles |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent on spectacle=Destination |
| 7 | **read** | present | the mother *not said here* |  |  | a big book |  | aloud *property* | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.source»: agent=Agent from book=Source |
| 8 | **listen** | past | the two girls |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **sit** | past | the two girls *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=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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