---
title: She tied a wooden beetle on where her child’s foot should have been,… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: She tied a wooden beetle on where her child’s foot should have been, a log of wood instead of an arm, and stuck a bit of dirt in the empty socket for an eye, and took the child with her to the castle. Who acts: witch, foot. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Birch, with
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Wonderful Birch, sentence 108

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She tied a wooden beetle on where her child’s foot should have been, a log of wood instead of an arm, and stuck a bit of dirt in the empty socket for an eye, and took the child with her to the castle.

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**Who acts:** witch, foot · **What happens:** tie, be, stick, take · **To what, where:** wooden beetle, bit, empty socket, child, castle

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Birch. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (witch, foot), 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:pg540:14:108
# text = She tied a wooden beetle on where her child’s foot should have been, a log of wood instead of an arm, and stuck a bit of dirt in the empty socket for an eye, and took the child with her to the castle.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tied	tie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	wooden	wooden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	beetle	beetle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
7	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	14	advmod	_	_
8	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’s	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux	_	_
14	been	be	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	log	log	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
20	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	23	case	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	fixed	_	_
22	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	arm	arm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	stuck	stick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	dirt	dirt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	socket	socket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
35	for	for	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
40	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obj	_	_
43	with	with	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	obl	_	_
45	to	to	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
47	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tie** | past | witch | a wooden beetle |  |  |  | a log of wood instead a arm *obl* | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent beetle=Patient |
| 2 | **be** | should · perfect | witch's child's foot |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **stick** | past | witch *not said here* | a bit of dirt |  | the empty socket |  | for a eye | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent bit=Theme in socket=Destination |
| 4 | **take** | past | witch *not said here* | the child |  | the castle |  | with witch | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent child=Theme to castle=Destination |

<!-- .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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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