---
title: When they saw Snowdrop lying dead on the ground, they at once suspec… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When they saw Snowdrop lying dead on the ground, they at once suspected that her wicked step-mother had been at work again; so they searched till they found the poisonous comb, and the moment they pulled it out of her head Snowdrop came to herself again, and told them what had happened. Who acts: dw
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Bushy Bride, sentence 223

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When they saw Snowdrop lying dead on the ground, they at once suspected that her wicked step-mother had been at work again; so they searched till they found the poisonous comb, and the moment they pulled it out of her head Snowdrop came to herself again, and told them what had happened.

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**Who acts:** dwarfs, Snowdrop, wicked step mother, moment · **What happens:** see, lie, suspect, be, search, find · **To what, where:** Snowdrop, ground, work, poisonous comb, comb, head · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (dwarfs, Snowdrop, wicked step mother, moment), 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:pg540:47:223
# text = When they saw Snowdrop lying dead on the ground, they at once suspected that her wicked step-mother had been at work again; so they searched till they found the poisonous comb, and the moment they pulled it out of her head Snowdrop came to herself again, and told them what had happened.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
4	Snowdrop	Snowdrop	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	xcomp	_	_
6	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	14	obl	_	_
14	suspected	suspect	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
17	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
18	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
22	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	cop	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	advcl	_	_
25	again	again	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	searched	search	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
30	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	poisonous	poisonous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	comb	comb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
40	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
41	pulled	pull	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
42	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	obj	_	_
43	out	out	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
44	of	of	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	46	nmod:poss	_	_
46	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	_
47	Snowdrop	Snowdrop	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	48	nsubj	_	_
48	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	acl:relcl	_	_
49	to	to	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	48	obl	_	_
51	again	again	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
54	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
55	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	54	iobj	_	_
56	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	58	nsubj	_	_
57	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	58	aux	_	_
58	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	54	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | dwarfs *= dwarf* | Snowdrop |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **lie** | gerund | Snowdrop *not said here* |  |  | the ground |  | dead *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on ground=Location |
| 3 | **suspect** | past | dwarfs *= dwarf* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past · perfect | SNOWDROP's wicked step mother |  |  | work | again |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **search** | past | dwarfs *= dwarf* |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **find** | past | dwarfs *= dwarf* | the poisonous comb |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent comb=Topic |
| 7 | **pull** | past | the moment | comb |  | SNOWDROP's head |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent it=Theme out head=Initial\_Location |
| 8 | **come** | past | Snowdrop | SNOWDROP's head *not said here* | SNOWDROP |  | again |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location head=Theme |
| 9 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | dwarfs *= dwarf* *not said here* |  | dwarfs *= dwarf* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 10 | **happen** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP 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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