---
title: ‘Why, I’ve a handkerchief of this kind—when I wave it thrice on the… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Why, I’ve a handkerchief of this kind—when I wave it thrice on the right hand, there springs up a very lofty bridge, and the fire cannot reach it.’ Who acts: I, fire. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Death of Koshchei the Deathless, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Death of Koshchei the Deathless, sentence 179

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‘Why, I’ve a handkerchief of this kind—when I wave it thrice on the right hand, there springs up a very lofty bridge, and the fire cannot reach it.’

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**Who acts:** I, fire · **What happens:** have, wave, spring up, not reach · **To what, where:** handkerchief, lofty bridge, bridge

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Death of Koshchei the Deathless. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, 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:pg540:7:179
# text = ‘Why, I’ve a handkerchief of this kind—when I wave it thrice on the right hand, there springs up a very lofty bridge, and the fire cannot reach it.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’ve	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	handkerchief	handkerchief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	wave	wave	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	thrice	thrice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	23	expl	_	_
23	springs	spring	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
24	up	up	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
26	very	very	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	lofty	lofty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
33	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	35	advmod	_	_
35	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
36	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | I | a handkerchief of this kind |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent handkerchief=Patient |
| 2 | **wave** | present | I | handkerchief |  |  |  | thrice *property* | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 3 | **spring up** | present | I *not said here* | a lofty bridge |  | there |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location bridge=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **reach** | can | the fire | bridge |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent it=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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