---
title: She broke off a branch of the birch tree, struck the hearth with it,… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: She broke off a branch of the birch tree, struck the hearth with it, so that the seeds flew into the pot, and then hastened to the castle. Who acts: girl, seeds. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Birch, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Wonderful Birch, sentence 67

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She broke off a branch of the birch tree, struck the hearth with it, so that the seeds flew into the pot, and then hastened to the castle.

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**Who acts:** girl, seeds · **What happens:** break off, strike, fly, hasten · **To what, where:** branch, hearth, pot, castle

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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, seeds), 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:pg540:14:67
# text = She broke off a branch of the birch tree, struck the hearth with it, so that the seeds flew into the pot, and then hastened to the castle.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	off	off	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	birch	birch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	hearth	hearth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	seeds	seed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
21	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
22	into	into	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	pot	pot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	_
28	hastened	hasten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break off** | past | girl | a branch of the birch tree |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer branch=Patient |
| 2 | **strike** | past | girl *not said here* | the hearth |  |  |  | with tree | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent hearth=Patient with it=Instrument |
| 3 | **fly** | past | the seeds |  |  |  |  | into the pot *result* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into pot=Result |
| 4 | **hasten** | participle | girl *not said here* |  |  | the castle | then |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to castle=Destination |

<!-- .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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