---
title: Meanwhile the old woman was standing at the mortar pounding the rise… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Meanwhile the old woman was standing at the mortar pounding the rise that was to serve them for the week with a pestle that made her arms ache with its weight. Who acts: old woman, mortar, rise, pestle. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 4, with its depende
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 4, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Meanwhile the old woman was standing at the mortar pounding the rise that was to serve them for the week with a pestle that made her arms ache with its weight.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old woman, mortar, rise, pestle, arms · **What happens:** stand, pound, be, make, ache · **To what, where:** mortar, rise, woman

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old woman, mortar, rise, pestle), 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:pg5615:4:13
# text = Meanwhile the old woman was standing at the mortar pounding the rise that was to serve them for the week with a pestle that made her arms ache with its weight.
1	Meanwhile	meanwhile	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	mortar	mortar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	pounding	pound	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	acl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	rise	rise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	serve	serve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	acl:relcl	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	week	week	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	pestle	pestle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
25	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
26	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
28	ache	ache	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	parataxis	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	weight	weight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past · progressive | the old woman |  |  | the mortar |  | meanwhile *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at mortar=Location |
| 2 | **pound** | gerund | the mortar *not said here* | the rise |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rise=Product |
| 3 | **is** | past | the rise | the rise *not said here* |  |  | week | with a pestle; serve *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **make** | past | a pestle | woman |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset she=Product |
| 5 | **ache** | present | arms |  |  |  |  | with pestle's weight | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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