---
title: When the old witch heard of the fine salad she wanted to eat it, and… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the old witch heard of the fine salad she wanted to eat it, and said, ‘Dear countryman, just let me taste the wonderful salad.’ Who acts: old witch, witch, fine salad, me. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 1, sentence 81

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When the old witch heard of the fine salad she wanted to eat it, and said, ‘Dear countryman, just let me taste the wonderful salad.’

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**Who acts:** old witch, witch, fine salad, me · **What happens:** hear, want, eat, say, let, taste · **To what, where:** fine salad, salad, me, wonderful salad · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (old witch, witch, fine salad, me), 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:pg640:10:81
# text = When the old witch heard of the fine salad she wanted to eat it, and said, ‘Dear countryman, just let me taste the wonderful salad.’
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	salad	salad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	Dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	countryman	countryman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	just	just	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	21	appos	_	_
25	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	taste	taste	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	salad	salad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | participle | the old witch |  |  |  |  | of the fine salad | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer of salad=Stimulus |
| 2 | **want** | past | witch | the fine salad *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **eat** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the fine salad *not said here* | salad |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old witch *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **let** | infinitive |  | me |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **taste** | infinitive | me *not said here* | the wonderful salad |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Theme salad=Attribute |

<!-- .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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