---
title: Just as they were taking leave, the kitchen wench sprang down from h… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Just as they were taking leave, the kitchen wench sprang down from her place by the stove, on the pretext of fetching something from the cowhouse, and in going by she whispered in the Prince’s ear as he stood in the yard: Who acts: festivities, kitchen wench, pretext, Prince. A sentence of «The Red 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Wonderful Birch, sentence 122

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Just as they were taking leave, the kitchen wench sprang down from her place by the stove, on the pretext of fetching something from the cowhouse, and in going by she whispered in the Prince’s ear as he stood in the yard:

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**Who acts:** festivities, kitchen wench, pretext, Prince · **What happens:** take, spring down, fetch, go, whisper, stand · **To what, where:** leave, place, something, cowhouse, ear

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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 (festivities, kitchen wench, pretext, Prince), 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:pg540:14:122
# text = Just as they were taking leave, the kitchen wench sprang down from her place by the stove, on the pretext of fetching something from the cowhouse, and in going by she whispered in the Prince’s ear as he stood in the yard:
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
6	leave	leave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	wench	wench	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	down	down	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	from	from	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	stove	stove	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	pretext	pretext	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
23	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
24	fetching	fetch	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	acl	_	_
25	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	24	obj	_	_
26	from	from	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	cowhouse	cowhouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
31	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
32	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	advcl	_	_
33	by	by	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obl	_	_
35	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	40	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	’s	's	PART	POS	_	38	case	_	_
40	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
41	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	43	mark	_	_
42	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
43	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	advcl	_	_
44	in	in	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	yard	yard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past · progressive | festivities *= festivity* | leave |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leave=Theme |
| 2 | **spring down** | past | the kitchen wench |  |  | wench's place by the stove |  | on the pretext; down *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from place=Trajectory |
| 3 | **fetch** | gerund | the pretext *not said here* | something |  | the cowhouse |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent something=Theme from cowhouse=Source |
| 4 | **go** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | by wench | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by she=Location |
| 5 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past | the kitchen wench *not said here* |  |  | the Prince's ear |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in ear=Location |
| 6 | **stand** | past | Prince |  |  |  |  | in the yard | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in yard=Location |

<!-- .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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