---
title: Then they were hindered by the birch-trees, whose branches almost pu… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then they were hindered by the birch-trees, whose branches almost put their eyes out. Who acts: birch trees, branches. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch (28), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch (28), sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then they were hindered by the birch-trees, whose branches almost put their eyes out.

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**Who acts:** birch trees, branches · **What happens:** hinder, put out · **To what, where:** children, eyes

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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 (birch trees, branches), 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:pg640:39:55
# text = Then they were hindered by the birch-trees, whose branches almost put their eyes out.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	hindered	hinder	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	birch	birch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
13	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	put	put	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	out	out	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hinder** | past · passive | the birch trees | children *= child* |  |  | then |  | vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer subject=Eventuality |
| 2 | **put out** | present | branches | children's eyes |  |  |  | almost, out *property* | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent eye=Goal |

<!-- .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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