---
title: Every day she had to sit by a well on the high road, and spin till h… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Every day she had to sit by a well on the high road, and spin till her fingers were so sore that they often bled. Who acts: widow, spin, fingers. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Mother Holle, part 1, sentence 3

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Every day she had to sit by a well on the high road, and spin till her fingers were so sore that they often bled.

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**Who acts:** widow, spin, fingers · **What happens:** have, sit, be, bleed · **To what, where:** high road

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, 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 (widow, spin, fingers), 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:pg540:44:3
# text = Every day she had to sit by a well on the high road, and spin till her fingers were so sore that they often bled.
1	Every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	well	well	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
16	spin	spin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
17	till	till	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	sore	sore	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	often	often	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	bled	bleed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | widow |  |  |  | day |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **sit** | to-infinitive | widow *not said here* |  |  | the high road |  | by a well | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by well=Location |
| 3 | **is** | past | spin till widow's fingers |  |  |  |  | sore *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **bleed** | past | fingers *= finger* |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Source |

<!-- .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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