---
title: She tried to be sure to pick up the grains of barley, but she soon s… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: She tried to be sure to pick up the grains of barley, but she soon saw how useless her labour was; and so she went in her sore trouble to the birch tree on her mother’s grave, and cried and cried, because her mother lay dead beneath the sod and could help her no longer. Who acts: girl, labour, mothe
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Wonderful Birch, sentence 34

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She tried to be sure to pick up the grains of barley, but she soon saw how useless her labour was; and so she went in her sore trouble to the birch tree on her mother’s grave, and cried and cried, because her mother lay dead beneath the sod and could help her no longer.

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**Who acts:** girl, labour, mother · **What happens:** try, be, pick up, see, go, cry · **To what, where:** grains, sore trouble, sod, girl · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (girl, labour, mother), 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:pg540:14:34
# text = She tried to be sure to pick up the grains of barley, but she soon saw how useless her labour was; and so she went in her sore trouble to the birch tree on her mother’s grave, and cried and cried, because her mother lay dead beneath the sod and could help her no longer.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
5	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	pick	pick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	up	up	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	grains	grain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	barley	barley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	_
17	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
18	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
19	useless	useless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	ccomp	_	_
20	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	labour	labour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
26	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	sore	sore	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	birch	birch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	_
35	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
36	on	on	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
37	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	’s	's	PART	POS	_	38	case	_	_
40	grave	grave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
43	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
47	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	50	mark	_	_
48	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	49	nmod:poss	_	_
49	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	nsubj	_	_
50	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	45	parataxis	_	_
51	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	xcomp	_	_
52	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	sod	sod	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obl	_	_
55	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	57	cc	_	_
56	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	57	aux	_	_
57	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	50	conj	_	_
58	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	57	obj	_	_
59	no	no	ADV	RB	_	60	advmod	_	_
60	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	57	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | girl |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | girl *not said here* |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **pick up** | to-infinitive | girl *not said here* | the grains of barley |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grain=Topic |
| 4 | **see** | past | girl |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | past | girl's labour |  |  |  |  | useless *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **go** | past | girl |  |  | girl's sore trouble |  | to the birch tree; on girl's mother's grave | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to tree=Initial\_Location |
| 7 | **cry** *speech: express* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **cry** *speech: express* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **lay** | present | girl's mother |  |  | the sod |  | dead *property* | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent beneath sod=Destination |
| 10 | **help** | could | girl's mother *not said here* |  | girl |  |  | long *property* | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Beneficiary |
| 11 | **trouble** |  | girl |  |  |  |  |  | nom trouble «cognition transitive»: poss=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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