--- title: When they reached it they saw in front of them, in the thickest of t… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: When they reached it they saw in front of them, in the thickest of the trees, a queer little hut, and when they looked into it, there lay the witch, with her head on the threshold of the door, with one foot in one corner and the other in the other corner, and her knees cocked up, almost touching the --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/20/) [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 Witch (28)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/) / 20 # The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch (28), sentence 20 When they reached it they saw in front of them, in the thickest of the trees, a queer little hut, and when they looked into it, there lay the witch, with her head on the threshold of the door, with one foot in one corner and the other in the other corner, and her knees cocked up, almost touching the ceiling. **Who acts:** grandchildren, knees · **What happens:** reach, see, look, lay, cock up, touch · **To what, where:** bottle, thickest, front, witch, threshold, ceiling This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch (28). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (grandchildren, knees), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg640:39:20 # text = When they reached it they saw in front of them, in the thickest of the trees, a queer little hut, and when they looked into it, there lay the witch, with her head on the threshold of the door, with one foot in one corner and the other in the other corner, and her knees cocked up, almost touching the ceiling. 1 When when SCONJ WRB _ 3 mark _ _ 2 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 reached reach VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 advcl _ _ 4 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 obj _ _ 5 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 6 nsubj _ _ 6 saw see VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 7 in in ADP IN _ 8 case _ _ 8 front front NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 obl _ _ 9 of of ADP IN _ 10 case _ _ 10 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 8 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 11 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 12 in in ADP IN _ 14 case _ _ 13 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 14 det _ _ 14 thickest thick ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 6 obj _ _ 15 of of ADP IN _ 17 case _ _ 16 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 17 det _ _ 17 trees tree NOUN NNS Number=Plur 14 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 18 , , PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 19 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 22 det _ _ 20 queer queer ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 22 amod _ _ 21 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 22 amod _ _ 22 hut hut NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 23 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 24 and and CCONJ CC _ 27 cc _ _ 25 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 27 advmod _ _ 26 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 27 nsubj _ _ 27 looked look VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 conj _ _ 28 into into ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 29 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 27 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 30 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 31 there there ADV RB PronType=Dem 32 advmod _ _ 32 lay lay VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 6 conj _ _ 33 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 34 det _ _ 34 witch witch NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 35 , , PUNCT , _ 38 punct _ _ 36 with with ADP IN _ 38 case _ _ 37 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 38 nmod:poss _ _ 38 head head NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 obl _ _ 39 on on ADP IN _ 41 case _ _ 40 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 41 det _ _ 41 threshold threshold NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 obl _ _ 42 of of ADP IN _ 44 case _ _ 43 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 44 det _ _ 44 door door NOUN NN Number=Sing 41 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 45 , , PUNCT , _ 48 punct _ _ 46 with with ADP IN _ 48 case _ _ 47 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 48 nummod _ _ 48 foot foot NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 obl _ _ 49 in in ADP IN _ 51 case _ _ 50 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 51 nummod _ _ 51 corner corner NOUN NN Number=Sing 48 nmod _ _ 52 and and CCONJ CC _ 54 cc _ _ 53 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 54 det _ _ 54 other other ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 51 conj _ _ 55 in in ADP IN _ 58 case _ _ 56 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 58 det _ _ 57 other other ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 58 amod _ _ 58 corner corner NOUN NN Number=Sing 54 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 59 , , PUNCT , _ 63 punct _ _ 60 and and CCONJ CC _ 63 cc _ _ 61 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 62 nmod:poss _ _ 62 knees knee NOUN NNS Number=Plur 63 nsubj _ _ 63 cocked cock VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 32 conj _ _ 64 up up ADP RP _ 63 compound:prt _ SpaceAfter=No 65 , , PUNCT , _ 67 punct _ _ 66 almost almost ADV RB _ 67 advmod _ _ 67 touching touch VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 63 advcl _ _ 68 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 69 det _ _ 69 ceiling ceiling NOUN NN Number=Sing 67 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 70 . . PUNCT . _ 6 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **reach** | past | grandchildren *= grandchild* | bottle | | | | | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent it=Theme | | 2 | **see** | past | grandchildren *= grandchild* | the thickest | | front of milk | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thick=Stimulus | | 3 | **look** | past | grandchildren *= grandchild* | | | | | into bottle | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent into it=Theme | | 4 | **lay** | infinitive | grandchildren *= grandchild* *not said here* | the witch | | the threshold of the door; there | | with witch's head; with one foot in one corner | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent witch=Theme on threshold=Destination | | 5 | **cock up** | participle | witch's knees | | | | | | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **touch** | gerund | witch's knees *not said here* | the ceiling | | | | almost *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme ceiling=Co-Theme | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/19/) - next →: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/21/) - ↑ back to [The Witch (28)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/)