---
title: One evening, when she was spinning flax, and had worked her little w… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One evening, when she was spinning flax, and had worked her little white hands weary, she heard a rustling beside her and a cry of joy. Who acts: Princess, joy. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/18/24/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The Grateful Beasts(11), part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/18/) / 24

# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 5, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
One evening, when she was spinning flax, and had worked her little white hands weary, she heard a rustling beside her and a cry of joy.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Princess, joy · **What happens:** spin, work, hear, cry · **To what, where:** flax, little white hands, rustling

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Princess, joy), 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:pg640:18:24
# text = One evening, when she was spinning flax, and had worked her little white hands weary, she heard a rustling beside her and a cry of joy.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	7	mark	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	flax	flax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	worked	work	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
13	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
17	weary	weary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	rustling	rustling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nmod	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	cry	cry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spin** | past · progressive | Princess | flax |  |  | evening |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent flax=Theme |
| 2 | **work** | past · perfect | Princess *not said here* | Princess's little white hands |  |  |  | weary *property* | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent hand=Material |
| 3 | **hear** | past | Princess | a rustling and a cry of joy |  |  |  | beside maid | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer rustling=Stimulus |
| 4 | **cry** |  | joy |  |  |  |  |  | nom cry «communication intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/18/23/)
- next →: [sentence 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/18/25/)
- ↑ back to [The Grateful Beasts(11), part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/18/)