---
title: In the autumn the woodcutters used to come and hew some of the talle… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In the autumn the woodcutters used to come and hew some of the tallest trees; this happened every year, and the young fir-tree would shiver as the magnificent trees fell crashing and crackling to the ground, their branches hewn off, and the great trunks left bare, so that they were almost unrecognis
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 8

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In the autumn the woodcutters used to come and hew some of the tallest trees; this happened every year, and the young fir-tree would shiver as the magnificent trees fell crashing and crackling to the ground, their branches hewn off, and the great trunks left bare, so that they were almost unrecognisable.

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**Who acts:** woodcutters, this, young fir tree, magnificent trees, great trunks, trunks · **What happens:** use, come, hew, happen, shiver, fall · **To what, where:** some, branches

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woodcutters, this, young fir tree, magnificent trees), 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:pg5615:11:8
# text = In the autumn the woodcutters used to come and hew some of the tallest trees; this happened every year, and the young fir-tree would shiver as the magnificent trees fell crashing and crackling to the ground, their branches hewn off, and the great trunks left bare, so that they were almost unrecognisable.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	autumn	autumn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	woodcutters	woodcutter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	hew	hew	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
11	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	tallest	tall	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	amod	_	_
15	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	nsubj	_	_
18	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
19	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	20	det	_	_
20	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
24	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
25	fir	fir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
28	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	shiver	shiver	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
30	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	magnificent	magnificent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
34	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
35	crashing	crash	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	34	xcomp	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	crackling	crackle	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	35	conj	_	_
38	to	to	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
42	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obl	_	_
44	hewn	hewn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	43	acl	_	_
45	off	off	ADP	RP	_	44	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
49	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	trunks	trunk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	51	nsubj	_	_
51	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
52	bare	bare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	51	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	59	punct	_	_
54	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	59	mark	_	_
55	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	54	fixed	_	_
56	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	59	nsubj	_	_
57	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	59	cop	_	_
58	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	59	advmod	_	_
59	unrecognisable	unrecognisable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	51	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **use** | past | the woodcutters |  |  |  | autumn |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **come** | to-infinitive | the woodcutters *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **hew** | infinitive | the woodcutters *not said here* | some |  |  |  |  | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent some=Patient |
| 4 | **happen** | past | this |  |  |  | year |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **shiver** | would | the young fir tree |  |  |  |  |  | vn body\_internal\_states-40.6 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **fall** | past | the magnificent trees |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 7 | **crash** | gerund | the magnificent trees *not said here* | woodcutters's branches |  |  |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 8 | **crackle** | gerund | the magnificent trees *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the ground | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 9 | **hewn off** | participle |  | woodcutters's branches *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 10 | **leave** | participle | the great trunks |  |  |  |  | bare *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 11 | **is** | past | trunks *= trunk* |  |  |  |  | almost, unrecognisable *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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