---
title: Immediately word was brought to the witch that her daughter had born… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Immediately word was brought to the witch that her daughter had borne a son—for they all believed the young King’s wife to be the witch’s daughter. Who acts: daughter, preparations. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Birch, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Wonderful Birch, sentence 133

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Immediately word was brought to the witch that her daughter had borne a son—for they all believed the young King’s wife to be the witch’s daughter.

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**Who acts:** daughter, preparations · **What happens:** bring, bear, believe, be · **To what, where:** word, witch, son, wife, daughter

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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 (daughter, preparations), 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:pg540:14:133
# text = Immediately word was brought to the witch that her daughter had borne a son—for they all believed the young King’s wife to be the witch’s daughter.
1	Immediately	immediately	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	borne	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	det	_	_
19	believed	believe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’s	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	cop	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’s	's	PART	POS	_	28	case	_	_
30	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bring** | past · passive |  | word | the witch |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to witch=Destination |
| 2 | **bear** | past · perfect | witch's daughter | a son |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **believe** | past | preparations *= preparation* | the young King's wife |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer wife=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is a** | to-infinitive | preparations *= preparation* *not said here* | the witch's daughter |  |  |  |  | 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 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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