---
title: The witch would not allow them to be handed to the cinder wench; she… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The witch would not allow them to be handed to the cinder wench; she worked at her own daughter’s head and feet till she got the things forced on. Who acts: witch. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Birch, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Wonderful Birch, sentence 118

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The witch would not allow them to be handed to the cinder wench; she worked at her own daughter’s head and feet till she got the things forced on.

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**Who acts:** witch · **What happens:** not allow, hand, work, get, force on · **To what, where:** gold, cinder wench, things

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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), 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:pg540:14:118
# text = The witch would not allow them to be handed to the cinder wench; she worked at her own daughter’s head and feet till she got the things forced on.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	allow	allow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	iobj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	handed	hand	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	advcl	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	cinder	cinder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	wench	wench	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	worked	work	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’s	's	PART	POS	_	20	case	_	_
22	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	_
25	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
30	forced	force	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	acl	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **allow** | would | the witch |  | gold |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **hand** | to-infinitive · passive | the witch *not said here* |  |  | the cinder wench |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: to wench=Destination |
| 3 | **work** | past | witch |  |  |  |  | at witch's own daughter's head and feet | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at head=Theme |
| 4 | **get** | past | witch | the things |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus |
| 5 | **force on** | participle |  | the things *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: 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 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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