---
title: It happened that soon after this the mother sent the two girls to th… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It happened that soon after this the mother sent the two girls to the town to buy needles, thread, laces, and ribbons. Who acts: It, mother. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Snow-white and Rose-red, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Snow-white and Rose-red, sentence 72

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It happened that soon after this the mother sent the two girls to the town to buy needles, thread, laces, and ribbons.

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**Who acts:** It, mother · **What happens:** happen, send, buy · **To what, where:** ribbons, two girls, town, needles

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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 (It, mother), 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:pg503:36:72
# text = It happened that soon after this the mother sent the two girls to the town to buy needles, thread, laces, and ribbons.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
4	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	9	advmod	_	_
5	after	after	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	obl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
18	needles	needle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	thread	thread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	laces	lace	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	ribbons	ribbon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | It | ribbons |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **send** | past | the mother | the two girls |  | the town |  | soon *property* | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent girl=Theme to town=Destination |
| 3 | **buy** | to-infinitive | the mother *not said here* | needles and thread and laces |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent needle=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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