---
title: After scratching and scraping all day and all night, they presently… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: After scratching and scraping all day and all night, they presently made a hole through which they could, with great difficulty, push a very slender needle, and out of this the Princess looked at the daylight for the first time. Who acts: King, Princess. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Princess Mayblossom, part 1, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
After scratching and scraping all day and all night, they presently made a hole through which they could, with great difficulty, push a very slender needle, and out of this the Princess looked at the daylight for the first time.

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**Who acts:** King, Princess · **What happens:** scratch, scrape, make, push, look · **To what, where:** hole, slender needle

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, Princess), 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:pg540:3:50
# text = After scratching and scraping all day and all night, they presently made a hole through which they could, with great difficulty, push a very slender needle, and out of this the Princess looked at the daylight for the first time.
1	After	after	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	scratching	scratch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	scraping	scrape	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
5	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
6	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	9	det	_	_
9	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	presently	presently	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	through	through	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	obl	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	push	push	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	parataxis	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
27	very	very	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	slender	slender	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	needle	needle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
32	out	out	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	37	obl	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
37	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
38	at	at	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	daylight	daylight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	_
41	for	for	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
43	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	44	amod	_	_
44	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scratch** | gerund | King *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **scrape** | gerund | King *not said here* |  |  |  | day |  | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **make** | past | King | a hole |  |  |  | with great difficulty; presently *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset hole=Product |
| 4 | **push** | infinitive |  | a slender needle |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent needle=Theme |
| 5 | **look** | past | the Princess |  |  |  | time | at the daylight; out this | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent out this=Theme |

<!-- .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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