---
title: One day a big washing was going on at the palace, and the girl looki… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One day a big washing was going on at the palace, and the girl looking down from her window saw twelve men’s shirts hanging up to dry, and asked her mother: Who acts: big washing, girl, shirts. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Brothers, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
One day a big washing was going on at the palace, and the girl looking down from her window saw twelve men’s shirts hanging up to dry, and asked her mother:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** big washing, girl, shirts · **What happens:** go on, look down, see, hang up, dry, ask · **To what, where:** palace, shirts, mother

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (big washing, girl, shirts), 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:pg540:41:29
# text = One day a big washing was going on at the palace, and the girl looking down from her window saw twelve men’s shirts hanging up to dry, and asked her mother:
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	washing	washing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
16	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
17	down	down	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
22	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nummod	_	_
23	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’s	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	shirts	shirt	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
26	hanging	hang	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	acl	_	_
27	up	up	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	dry	dry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
33	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go on** | past · progressive | a big washing |  |  | the palace | day |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at palace=Location |
| 2 | **look down** | gerund | the girl *not said here* |  |  |  |  | from girl's window; down *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent from window=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | past | the girl | twelve men's shirts |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer shirt=Stimulus |
| 4 | **hang up** | gerund | twelve men's shirts *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **dry** | to-infinitive | twelve men's shirts *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the girl *not said here* |  | girl's mother |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent mother=Recipient |

<!-- .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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