---
title: When the Porcelain Maiden was tired of playing in the water she came… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the Porcelain Maiden was tired of playing in the water she came out to dress herself, but, though she hunted for her clothes high and low, she could find them nowhere. Who acts: Porcelain Maiden, Maiden. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Blackbird, with its depende
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Blackbird, sentence 58

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When the Porcelain Maiden was tired of playing in the water she came out to dress herself, but, though she hunted for her clothes high and low, she could find them nowhere.

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**Who acts:** Porcelain Maiden, Maiden · **What happens:** be, play, come out, dress, hunt, find · **To what, where:** water, Maiden, clothes

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Blackbird. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Porcelain Maiden, Maiden), 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:pg7277:21:58
# text = When the Porcelain Maiden was tired of playing in the water she came out to dress herself, but, though she hunted for her clothes high and low, she could find them nowhere.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	6	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	Porcelain	Porcelain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	Maiden	Maiden	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
14	out	out	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	dress	dress	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
17	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
21	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	hunted	hunt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	advcl	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	23	obl	_	_
27	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
31	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
34	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	nowhere	nowhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	33	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the Porcelain Maiden |  |  |  |  | tired *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **play** | gerund | the Porcelain Maiden *not said here* |  |  | the water |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **come out** | past | Maiden | the water *not said here* |  |  |  | out *property* | vn become-109.1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient water=Result |
| 4 | **dress** | to-infinitive | Maiden *not said here* | Maiden |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent herself=Patient |
| 5 | **hunt** | past | Maiden |  |  |  |  | for Maiden's clothes; high *property* | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent for clothes=Theme |
| 6 | **find** | could | Maiden | clothes |  |  |  | nowhere *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Topic |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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