---
title: A woman was sitting at her reel one night; And still she sat, and st… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: A woman was sitting at her reel one night; And still she sat, and still she reeled, and still she wished for company. Who acts: woman. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Strange Visitor, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Strange Visitor, sentence 1

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A woman was sitting at her reel one night; And still she sat, and still she reeled, and still she wished for company.

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**Who acts:** woman · **What happens:** sit, reel, wish

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Strange Visitor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman), 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:pg7439:38:1
# text = A woman was sitting at her reel one night; And still she sat, and still she reeled, and still she wished for company.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	reel	reel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
11	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	still	still	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	still	still	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	reeled	reel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	still	still	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	company	company	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | a woman |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **reel** | infinitive | a woman *not said here* |  |  |  | night |  | vn tingle-40.8.2 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **sit** | past | woman |  |  |  | still |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **reel** | past | woman |  |  |  | still |  | vn tingle-40.8.2 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **wish** | past | woman |  |  |  | still | for company | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for company=Theme |

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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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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