---
title: The auld woman that sat by the fire warned him of the terrible Etin,… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The auld woman that sat by the fire warned him of the terrible Etin, and what had been the fate of the twa brithers; but he was not to be daunted. Who acts: auld woman. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Red Etin, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Red Etin, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The auld woman that sat by the fire warned him of the terrible Etin, and what had been the fate of the twa brithers; but he was not to be daunted.

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**Who acts:** auld woman · **What happens:** sit, warn, be, not be · **To what, where:** man, fate

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Red Etin. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (auld woman), 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:pg503:56:55
# text = The auld woman that sat by the fire warned him of the terrible Etin, and what had been the fate of the twa brithers; but he was not to be daunted.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	auld	auld	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	warned	warn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	Etin	Etin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	21	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
19	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	cop	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	fate	fate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	twa	twa	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	brithers	brither	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	33	punct	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
30	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	33	advmod	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
32	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	daunted	daunt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | the auld woman |  |  |  |  | by the fire | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by fire=Location |
| 2 | **warn** *speech: warn* | past | the auld woman |  | man |  |  | of the terrible Etin | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent he=Recipient of etin=Topic |
| 3 | **is a** | past · perfect |  | the fate |  |  |  | of the twa brithers | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **is** | past · passive |  | man |  |  |  | daunt *property* | 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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