---
title: And when they had eaten the last crumb they told the boy to fill up… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And when they had eaten the last crumb they told the boy to fill up the holes of the sieve with clay, and then to draw water from the well. Who acts: wrens. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch (28), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/40/)

<!-- 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 Witch (28)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/) / 40

# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch (28), sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And when they had eaten the last crumb they told the boy to fill up the holes of the sieve with clay, and then to draw water from the well.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wrens · **What happens:** eat, tell, fill up, draw · **To what, where:** last crumb, boy, holes, water, well · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (wrens), 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:pg640:39:40
# text = And when they had eaten the last crumb they told the boy to fill up the holes of the sieve with clay, and then to draw water from the well.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	crumb	crumb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	iobj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	fill	fill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
15	up	up	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	holes	hole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	sieve	sieve	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	clay	clay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	advmod	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	draw	draw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
28	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
29	from	from	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	well	well	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | past · perfect | wrens *= wren* | the last crumb |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crumb=Patient |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | wrens *= wren* |  | the boy |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent boy=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **fill up** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | wrens *= wren* *not said here* | the holes of the sieve with clay |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent hole=Patient |
| 4 | **draw** | to-infinitive | wrens *= wren* *not said here* | water |  | the well | then |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent water=Theme from well=Initial\_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.

<!-- 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 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/39/)
- next →: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/41/)
- ↑ back to [The Witch (28)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/)