---
title: But the witch’s daughter gnawed bones under the table, and the Princ… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the witch’s daughter gnawed bones under the table, and the Prince gave her a push by mistake, which broke her leg—he had never noticed her crawling about among the people’s feet. Who acts: daughter, Prince, mistake. 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 70

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the witch’s daughter gnawed bones under the table, and the Prince gave her a push by mistake, which broke her leg—he had never noticed her crawling about among the people’s feet.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** daughter, Prince, mistake · **What happens:** gnaw, give, break, not notice, crawl · **To what, where:** bones, table, push, daughter, leg, feet

<!-- .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 (daughter, Prince, mistake), 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:pg540:14:70
# text = But the witch’s daughter gnawed bones under the table, and the Prince gave her a push by mistake, which broke her leg—he had never noticed her crawling about among the people’s feet.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’s	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	gnawed	gnaw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
8	under	under	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	push	push	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	mistake	mistake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
23	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	leg	leg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	—	-	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	noticed	notice	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	conj	_	_
31	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	crawling	crawl	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	xcomp	_	_
33	about	about	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
34	among	among	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	’s	's	PART	POS	_	36	case	_	_
38	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **gnaw** | participle | the witch's daughter | bones |  | the table |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bone=Patient |
| 2 | **give** | past | the Prince | a push | daughter |  |  | by mistake | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient push=Theme |
| 3 | **break** | past | mistake | daughter's leg |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer leg=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **notice** | past · perfect | Prince | daughter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **crawl** | gerund | daughter *not said here* |  |  | the people's feet |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme among foot=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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