---
title: The needle had barely put in its last stitch when the girl, glancing… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The needle had barely put in its last stitch when the girl, glancing at the window, spied the white plumed hat of the King’s son who was being led back by the spindle with the golden thread. Who acts: girl. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle, with its d
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The needle had barely put in its last stitch when the girl, glancing at the window, spied the white plumed hat of the King’s son who was being led back by the spindle with the golden thread.

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**Who acts:** girl · **What happens:** put, glance, spy, plume, lead back · **To what, where:** needle, last stitch, white plumed hat, son

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girl), 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:pg7277:44:41
# text = The needle had barely put in its last stitch when the girl, glancing at the window, spied the white plumed hat of the King’s son who was being led back by the spindle with the golden thread.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	needle	needle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	barely	barely	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	stitch	stitch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	glancing	glance	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	acl	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
19	spied	spy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
22	plumed	plume	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	amod	_	_
23	hat	hat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’s	's	PART	POS	_	26	case	_	_
28	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
29	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
31	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	led	lead	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl:relcl	_	_
33	back	back	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
34	by	by	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	spindle	spindle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
37	with	with	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	thread	thread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **put** | past · perfect · passive |  | the needle |  | window's last stitch |  | barely *property* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in stitch=Destination |
| 2 | **glance** | gerund | the girl *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the window | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at window=Theme |
| 3 | **spy** | past | the girl | the white plumed hat of the King's son |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hat=Stimulus |
| 4 | **plume** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **lead back** | past · passive |  | the King's son |  |  |  | by the spindle with the golden thread | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme by spindle=Destination |

<!-- .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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