---
title: ‘The witch has scattered barleycorns on the hearth, and bid me pick… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘The witch has scattered barleycorns on the hearth, and bid me pick them out of the ashes,’ said the girl; ‘that is why I weep, dear little mother.’ Who acts: girl, that, I. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Birch, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Wonderful Birch, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘The witch has scattered barleycorns on the hearth, and bid me pick them out of the ashes,’ said the girl; ‘that is why I weep, dear little mother.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** girl, that, I · **What happens:** scatter, bid, pick, say, be, weep · **To what, where:** witch, hearth, me, barleycorns, ashes, dear little mother · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (girl, that, 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:pg540:14:37
# text = ‘The witch has scattered barleycorns on the hearth, and bid me pick them out of the ashes,’ said the girl; ‘that is why I weep, dear little mother.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	scattered	scatter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	ccomp	_	_
6	barleycorns	barleycorn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	hearth	hearth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	bid	bid	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
13	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	pick	pick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	out	out	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	ashes	ash	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
22	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
26	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	29	nsubj	_	_
28	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	parataxis	_	_
30	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	weep	weep	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
34	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scatter** | present · perfect · passive |  | the witch |  | the hearth |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **bid** | infinitive |  | me |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **pick** | infinitive |  | barleycorns *= barleycorn* |  | the ashes |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the girl |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **is** | present | that |  |  |  |  | why *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **weep** | present | I | dear little mother |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: 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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