---
title: The old woman was standing raking the fire, and she was doing it wit… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old woman was standing raking the fire, and she was doing it with her nose, so long it was. Who acts: old woman, woman, fire. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Farmer Weatherbeard, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Farmer Weatherbeard, sentence 52

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The old woman was standing raking the fire, and she was doing it with her nose, so long it was.

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**Who acts:** old woman, woman, fire · **What happens:** stand, rake, do, be · **To what, where:** fire

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Farmer Weatherbeard. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old woman, woman, fire), 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:pg540:43:52
# text = The old woman was standing raking the fire, and she was doing it with her nose, so long it was.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	raking	rake	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past · progressive | the old woman |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **rake** | gerund | the old woman *not said here* | the fire |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_instr-10.4.2-1 «NP V NP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent fire=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **do** | past · progressive | woman | fire |  |  |  | with woman's nose | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 4 | **be** | past | fire |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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