---
title: I have nothing to cover me now, poor creature that I am!’ cried the… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I have nothing to cover me now, poor creature that I am!’ cried the young woman, and transformed herself first into a distaff, then into a wooden beetle, then into a spindle, and into all imaginable shapes. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Birch, with its
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Wonderful Birch, sentence 189

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I have nothing to cover me now, poor creature that I am!’ cried the young woman, and transformed herself first into a distaff, then into a wooden beetle, then into a spindle, and into all imaginable shapes.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** have, cover, cry, transform · **To what, where:** nothing, imaginable shapes, me, young woman, woman, distaff

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (I), 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:pg540:14:189
# text = I have nothing to cover me now, poor creature that I am!’ cried the young woman, and transformed herself first into a distaff, then into a wooden beetle, then into a spindle, and into all imaginable shapes.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	2	obj	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	cover	cover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	acl	_	_
6	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
11	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	obj	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
16	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	transformed	transform	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
23	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	22	obj	_	_
24	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	22	advmod	_	_
25	into	into	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	distaff	distaff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	33	advmod	_	_
30	into	into	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	wooden	wooden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	beetle	beetle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
35	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	38	advmod	_	_
36	into	into	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	spindle	spindle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
41	into	into	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
42	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	44	det	_	_
43	imaginable	imaginable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	shapes	shape	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | I | nothing |  | all imaginable shapes |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 2 | **cover** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | nothing *not said here* | me |  | now |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme i=Destination |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | past |  | the young woman |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent woman=Topic |
| 4 | **transform** | past |  | woman |  |  |  | into a distaff *result*; first *property* | vn turn-26.6.1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: agent=Agent herself=Patient into distaff=Result |

<!-- .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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