---
title: There was some straw in a corner, which was all she had for a bed, a… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was some straw in a corner, which was all she had for a bed, and they gave her a very little bit of black bread to eat. Who acts: straw, corner. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Graciosa and Percinet, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Graciosa and Percinet, part 2, sentence 61

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was some straw in a corner, which was all she had for a bed, and they gave her a very little bit of black bread to eat.

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**Who acts:** straw, corner · **What happens:** be, give, eat · **To what, where:** corner, little bit, straw

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Graciosa and Percinet, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (straw, corner), 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:pg540:24:61
# text = There was some straw in a corner, which was all she had for a bed, and they gave her a very little bit of black bread to eat.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	det	_	_
4	straw	straw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
11	all	all	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
21	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	very	very	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | some straw |  |  | a corner and a bed; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in corner=Location |
| 2 | **is** | past | a corner and a bed |  |  |  |  | for a bed; all *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **give** | past | corner | a little bit of black bread | straw |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient bit=Theme |
| 4 | **eat** | to-infinitive | corner *not said here* | a little bit of black bread *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «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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