---
title: They sprung up even in the well-trodden floor of the cottage, and as… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They sprung up even in the well-trodden floor of the cottage, and as fast as they were uprooted the distaff gathered to itself a supply of nettles, crushed, prepared, and ready for spinning. Who acts: nettles, distaff. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nettle Spinner, with its d
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Nettle Spinner, sentence 100

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They sprung up even in the well-trodden floor of the cottage, and as fast as they were uprooted the distaff gathered to itself a supply of nettles, crushed, prepared, and ready for spinning.

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**Who acts:** nettles, distaff · **What happens:** spring up, tread, uproot, gather, crush, prepare · **To what, where:** trodden floor, nettles, supply, distaff

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nettle Spinner. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nettles, distaff), 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:pg540:42:100
# text = They sprung up even in the well-trodden floor of the cottage, and as fast as they were uprooted the distaff gathered to itself a supply of nettles, crushed, prepared, and ready for spinning.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sprung	spring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
3	up	up	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	even	even	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
7	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	trodden	tread	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	amod	_	_
10	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	cottage	cottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
16	as	as	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	21	advmod	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	uprooted	uproot	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	distaff	distaff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	gathered	gather	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	ccomp	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	24	obl	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	supply	supply	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	nettles	nettle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	crushed	crush	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
34	prepared	prepare	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
38	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
39	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	37	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spring up** | participle | nettles *= nettle* |  |  | the trodden floor of the cottage |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in floor=Location |
| 2 | **tread** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **uproot** | past · passive |  | nettles *= nettle* |  |  |  | fast *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **gather** | past | the distaff | a supply of nettles | distaff |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent supply=Patient to itself=Co-Patient |
| 5 | **crush** | participle |  | nettles *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **prepare** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **spin** | gerund | nettles *= nettle* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=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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