---
title: But her step-mother did not like her, and the poor girl’s days were… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But her step-mother did not like her, and the poor girl’s days were spent in weeping; for it was impossible to live peacefully with the woman. Who acts: step mother. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of King Frost (26), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Story of King Frost (26), sentence 5

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But her step-mother did not like her, and the poor girl’s days were spent in weeping; for it was impossible to live peacefully with the woman.

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**Who acts:** step mother · **What happens:** not like, spend, be, live · **To what, where:** woman, days, weeping

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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 (step mother), 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:pg640:37:5
# text = But her step-mother did not like her, and the poor girl’s days were spent in weeping; for it was impossible to live peacefully with the woman.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
3	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’s	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	spent	spend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	parataxis	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	weeping	weeping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	expl	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	csubj	_	_
28	peacefully	peacefully	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **like** | past · do-support | woman's step mother | woman |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot she=Theme |
| 2 | **spend** | past · passive |  | the poor girl's days |  | weeping |  |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Asset |
| 3 | **is** | past | woman's step mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **live** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | with the woman; peacefully *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme with woman=Location |

<!-- .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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