---
title: They unlaced her bodice, combed her hair, washed her with water and… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They unlaced her bodice, combed her hair, washed her with water and wine, but all in vain; the child was dead and remained dead. Who acts: dwarfs, child. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Bushy Bride, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Bushy Bride, sentence 252

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They unlaced her bodice, combed her hair, washed her with water and wine, but all in vain; the child was dead and remained dead.

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**Who acts:** dwarfs, child · **What happens:** unlace, comb, wash, be, remain · **To what, where:** bodice, hair, SNOWDROP

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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 (dwarfs, child), 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:pg540:47:252
# text = They unlaced her bodice, combed her hair, washed her with water and wine, but all in vain; the child was dead and remained dead.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	unlaced	unlace	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	bodice	bodice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	combed	comb	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	washed	wash	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	wine	wine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	20	nsubj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	remained	remain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	conj	_	_
28	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **unlace** | past | dwarfs *= dwarf* | SNOWDROP's bodice |  |  |  |  | vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bodice=Patient |
| 2 | **comb** | past | dwarfs *= dwarf* *not said here* | SNOWDROP's hair |  |  |  |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hair=Patient |
| 3 | **wash** | past | dwarfs *= dwarf* *not said here* | SNOWDROP |  |  |  | with water and wine | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent she=Patient with water=Instrument |
| 4 | **is** | past | the child |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **remain** | participle | the child *not said here* |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | vn exist-47.1 «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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