---
title: Once upon a time, in the middle of winter when the snow-flakes were… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time, in the middle of winter when the snow-flakes were falling like feathers on the earth, a Queen sat at a window framed in black ebony and sewed. Who acts: snow flakes, Queen. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Bushy Bride, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Bushy Bride, sentence 102

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time, in the middle of winter when the snow-flakes were falling like feathers on the earth, a Queen sat at a window framed in black ebony and sewed.

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**Who acts:** snow flakes, Queen · **What happens:** fall, sit, frame, sew · **To what, where:** earth, window

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Bushy Bride. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (snow flakes, Queen), 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:pg540:47:102
# text = Once upon a time, in the middle of winter when the snow-flakes were falling like feathers on the earth, a Queen sat at a window framed in black ebony and sewed.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	26	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	17	mark	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	flakes	flake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	acl	_	_
18	like	like	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
30	framed	frame	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	acl	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	ebony	ebony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	sewed	sew	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past · progressive | the snow flakes |  |  | the earth |  | like feathers | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on earth=Location |
| 2 | **sit** | past | a Queen |  |  | a window |  | once *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at window=Location |
| 3 | **frame** | participle |  | a window *not said here* |  |  |  | in black ebony | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent in ebony=Theme |
| 4 | **sew** | past | a Queen *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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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