---
title: The bird having secured its prey flew off some yards and alighted on… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: The bird having secured its prey flew off some yards and alighted on the ground, holding the talisman it its beak. Who acts: bird. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 25, sentence 85

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The bird having secured its prey flew off some yards and alighted on the ground, holding the talisman it its beak.

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**Who acts:** bird · **What happens:** secure, fly off, alight, hold · **To what, where:** prey, yards, ground, talisman

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bird), 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:pg128:25:85
# text = The bird having secured its prey flew off some yards and alighted on the ground, holding the talisman it its beak.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	having	have	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	aux	_	_
4	secured	secure	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	amod	_	_
5	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	prey	prey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	off	off	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	det	_	_
10	yards	yard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	alighted	alight	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	talisman	talisman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
21	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	beak	beak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **secure** | gerund · perfect |  | bird's prey |  |  |  |  | vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition prey=Theme |
| 2 | **fly off** | past | the bird | some yards |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location yard=Theme |
| 3 | **alight** | participle | the bird *not said here* |  |  | the ground |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **hold** | gerund | the bird *not said here* | the talisman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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:** «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 128 (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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