---
title: Suddenly a little old woman appeared before her, holding an apple in… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Suddenly a little old woman appeared before her, holding an apple in her hand, and said, ‘Why do you weep, my Queen, and what makes you so unhappy?’ Who acts: little old woman, you. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 3, sentence 96

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Suddenly a little old woman appeared before her, holding an apple in her hand, and said, ‘Why do you weep, my Queen, and what makes you so unhappy?’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little old woman, you · **What happens:** appear, hold, say, weep, make · **To what, where:** apple, hand, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little old woman, you), 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:pg640:12:96
# text = Suddenly a little old woman appeared before her, holding an apple in her hand, and said, ‘Why do you weep, my Queen, and what makes you so unhappy?’
1	Suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	before	before	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
11	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	apple	apple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
22	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	weep	weep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	31	nsubj	_	_
31	makes	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
32	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	so	so	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	unhappy	unhappy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	31	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **appear** | past | a little old woman |  |  |  | before Queen | suddenly *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before she=Location |
| 2 | **hold** | gerund | a little old woman *not said here* | a apple |  | Queen's hand |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent apple=Theme in hand=Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a little old woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **weep** | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  | my Queen *vocative* | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **make** | present |  | you |  |  |  | unhappy *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material you=Product |

<!-- .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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