---
title: Her poor mother hadn’t enough money always to be buying parsley for… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Her poor mother hadn’t enough money always to be buying parsley for her, but the child was so beautiful that she could refuse her nothing, and so she went every night to the garden of an old witch who lived near and stole great branches of the coveted vegetable, in order to satisfy her daughter. Who
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 4, sentence 56

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Her poor mother hadn’t enough money always to be buying parsley for her, but the child was so beautiful that she could refuse her nothing, and so she went every night to the garden of an old witch who lived near and stole great branches of the coveted vegetable, in order to satisfy her daughter.

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**Who acts:** poor mother, child, daughter, old witch · **What happens:** not have, buy, be, refuse, go, live · **To what, where:** enough money, parsley, nothing, garden, great branches, daughter

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor mother, child, daughter, old witch), 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:pg7277:29:56
# text = Her poor mother hadn’t enough money always to be buying parsley for her, but the child was so beautiful that she could refuse her nothing, and so she went every night to the garden of an old witch who lived near and stole great branches of the coveted vegetable, in order to satisfy her daughter.
1	Her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
6	enough	enough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	7	advmod	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	aux	_	_
11	buying	buy	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	acl	_	_
12	parsley	parsley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	so	so	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	refuse	refuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
26	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	so	so	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
31	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
33	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	34	det	_	_
34	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl:unmarked	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
39	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
40	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	_
42	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	43	nsubj	_	_
43	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	acl:relcl	_	_
44	near	near	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
46	stole	steal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	conj	_	_
47	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	obj	_	_
49	of	of	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
50	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
51	coveted	covet	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	52	amod	_	_
52	vegetable	vegetable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
54	in	in	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	57	mark	_	_
55	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	fixed	_	_
56	to	to	PART	TO	_	57	mark	_	_
57	satisfy	satisfy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	conj	_	_
58	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	59	nmod:poss	_	_
59	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **have** | past | daughter's poor mother | enough money |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent money=Patient |
| 2 | **buy** | to-infinitive · progressive | daughter's poor mother *not said here* | parsley |  |  |  | for daughter | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent parsley=Theme for she=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **is** | past | the child |  |  |  |  | beautiful *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **refuse** | could | daughter | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Theme |
| 5 | **go** | past | daughter |  |  | the garden of a old witch | night |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to garden=Initial\_Location |
| 6 | **live** | past | a old witch |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **steal** | past | a old witch *not said here* | great branches of the coveted vegetable |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location branch=Theme |
| 8 | **covet** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot |
| 9 | **satisfy** | to-infinitive | a old witch *not said here* | daughter's daughter |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus daughter=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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