---
title: In the meantime the wicked step-mother was waiting at home for news… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In the meantime the wicked step-mother was waiting at home for news of the girl’s death, and preparing pancakes for the funeral feast. Who acts: wicked step mother, girl. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of King Frost (26), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Story of King Frost (26), sentence 29

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In the meantime the wicked step-mother was waiting at home for news of the girl’s death, and preparing pancakes for the funeral feast.

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**Who acts:** wicked step mother, girl · **What happens:** wait, prepare, die · **To what, where:** meantime, pancakes

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of King Frost (26). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wicked step mother, girl), 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:pg640:37:29
# text = In the meantime the wicked step-mother was waiting at home for news of the girl’s death, and preparing pancakes for the funeral feast.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	meantime	meantime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
5	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
6	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’s	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	preparing	prepare	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
23	pancakes	pancake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	funeral	funeral	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	feast	feast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wait** | past · progressive | the wicked step mother |  |  | the meantime |  | at home; for news of the girl's death | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in meantime=Location |
| 2 | **prepare** | gerund | the wicked step mother *not said here* | pancakes |  |  |  | for the funeral feast | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent pancake=Product for feast=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **die** |  | the girl |  |  |  |  |  | nom death «event intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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