--- title: ‘Now she is good for nothing!’ said the Fingers; but they had to hol… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: ‘Now she is good for nothing!’ said the Fingers; but they had to hold her tight while the cook dropped some sealing-wax on the needle and stuck it in the front of her dress. Who acts: needle, Fingers, cook. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Story About a Darning-needle, with it --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/51/16/) [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/) / [A Story About a Darning-needle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/51/) / 16 # The Yellow Fairy Book, A Story About a Darning-needle, sentence 16 ‘Now she is good for nothing!’ said the Fingers; but they had to hold her tight while the cook dropped some sealing-wax on the needle and stuck it in the front of her dress. **Who acts:** needle, Fingers, cook · **What happens:** be, say, have, hold, drop, stick · **To what, where:** Fingers, tight, sealing wax, needle, wax, front · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Story About a Darning-needle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (needle, Fingers, cook), 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:pg640:51:16 # text = ‘Now she is good for nothing!’ said the Fingers; but they had to hold her tight while the cook dropped some sealing-wax on the needle and stuck it in the front of her dress. 1 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 5 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 Now now ADV RB PronType=Dem 5 advmod _ _ 3 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 5 nsubj _ _ 4 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 cop _ _ 5 good good ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 10 ccomp _ _ 6 for for ADP IN _ 7 case _ _ 7 nothing nothing PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Neg 5 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 8 ! ! PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 9 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 5 punct _ _ 10 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 Fingers Finger PROPN NNPS Number=Plur 10 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 13 ; ; PUNCT : _ 16 punct _ _ 14 but but CCONJ CC _ 16 cc _ _ 15 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 16 nsubj _ _ 16 had have VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 10 parataxis _ _ 17 to to PART TO _ 18 mark _ _ 18 hold hold VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 16 xcomp _ _ 19 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 20 nmod:poss _ _ 20 tight tight ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 18 obj _ _ 21 while while SCONJ IN _ 24 mark _ _ 22 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 23 det _ _ 23 cook cook NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 nsubj _ _ 24 dropped drop VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 18 advcl _ _ 25 some some DET DT PronType=Ind 28 det _ _ 26 sealing sealing NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 27 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 26 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 28 wax wax NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 obj _ _ 29 on on ADP IN _ 31 case _ _ 30 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 31 det _ _ 31 needle needle NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 nmod _ _ 32 and and CCONJ CC _ 33 cc _ _ 33 stuck stick VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 16 conj _ _ 34 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 33 obj _ _ 35 in in ADP IN _ 37 case _ _ 36 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 37 det _ _ 37 front front NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 obl _ _ 38 of of ADP IN _ 40 case _ _ 39 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 40 nmod:poss _ _ 40 dress dress NOUN NN Number=Sing 37 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 41 . . PUNCT . _ 10 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | present | needle | | | | now | for nothing; good *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | | the Fingers | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent finger=Topic | | 3 | **have** | past | Fingers *= finger* | | | | | | tree rules | | 4 | **hold** | to-infinitive | Fingers *= finger* *not said here* | needle's tight | | | | | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tight=Theme | | 5 | **drop** | past | the cook | some sealing wax | | the needle | | | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent wax=Theme on needle=Destination | | 6 | **stick** | past | Fingers *= finger* *not said here* | wax | | the front of needle's dress | | | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme in front=Destination | 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 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/51/15/) - next →: [sentence 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/51/17/) - ↑ back to [A Story About a Darning-needle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/51/)