---
title: ‘They are not asleep yet,’ muttered the witch to herself; and she wa… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘They are not asleep yet,’ muttered the witch to herself; and she walked up and down in the passage, and then came back to the door, and said: Who acts: knives, witch. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Duck, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The White Duck, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘They are not asleep yet,’ muttered the witch to herself; and she walked up and down in the passage, and then came back to the door, and said:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** knives, witch · **What happens:** not be, mutter, walk, come back, say · **To what, where:** witch, passage, door · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Duck. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (knives, witch), 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:pg640:29:35
# text = ‘They are not asleep yet,’ muttered the witch to herself; and she walked up and down in the passage, and then came back to the door, and said:
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	parataxis	_	_
6	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
9	muttered	mutter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
18	up	up	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	down	down	ADV	RB	_	18	conj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	passage	passage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	advmod	_	_
27	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	advcl	_	_
28	back	back	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | present | knives *= knife* |  |  |  | yet | asleep *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **mutter** *speech: assert* | past |  | the witch | witch |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent witch=Topic to herself=Recipient |
| 3 | **walk** | past | witch |  |  | the passage |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in passage=Trajectory |
| 4 | **come back** | past |  |  |  | the door | then |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to door=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | witch *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=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.

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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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