---
title: The maiden had to get hold of it secretly and then swallow it hersel… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The maiden had to get hold of it secretly and then swallow it herself, for the old witch wanted to have it. Who acts: maiden, old witch. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/10/35/)

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 1, sentence 35

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The maiden had to get hold of it secretly and then swallow it herself, for the old witch wanted to have it.

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**Who acts:** maiden, old witch · **What happens:** have, get, swallow, want, hold · **To what, where:** hold, maiden

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (maiden, old witch), 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:pg640:10:35
# text = The maiden had to get hold of it secretly and then swallow it herself, for the old witch wanted to have it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nmod	_	_
9	secretly	secretly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	12	advmod	_	_
12	swallow	swallow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the maiden |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **get** | to-infinitive | the maiden *not said here* | hold of maiden |  |  |  | secretly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hold=Stimulus |
| 3 | **swallow** | infinitive | the maiden *not said here* | maiden |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **want** | past | the old witch |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **have** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the old witch *not said here* | maiden |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 6 | **hold** |  |  | maiden |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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