---
title: The eagle flew about the wood and collected the softest, greenest mo… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The eagle flew about the wood and collected the softest, greenest moss he could find to make her a bed, and then he picked with his beak all the brightest and prettiest flowers in the fields or on the mountains to decorate it. Who acts: eagle, greenest moss. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The eagle flew about the wood and collected the softest, greenest moss he could find to make her a bed, and then he picked with his beak all the brightest and prettiest flowers in the fields or on the mountains to decorate it.

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**Who acts:** eagle, greenest moss · **What happens:** fly, collect, find, make, pick, decorate · **To what, where:** softest, bed, moss, brightest flowers, fields

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eagle, greenest moss), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2435:10:18
# text = The eagle flew about the wood and collected the softest, greenest moss he could find to make her a bed, and then he picked with his beak all the brightest and prettiest flowers in the fields or on the mountains to decorate it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	eagle	eagle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	about	about	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	collected	collect	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	softest	soft	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	greenest	green	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	13	amod	_	_
13	moss	moss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	picked	pick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	beak	beak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
30	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	35	det:predet	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
32	brightest	bright	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	35	amod	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	prettiest	pretty	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	32	conj	_	_
35	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	fields	field	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	_
39	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
40	on	on	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	mountains	mountain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	conj	_	_
43	to	to	PART	TO	_	44	mark	_	_
44	decorate	decorate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	advcl	_	_
45	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past | the eagle |  |  |  |  | about the wood | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent about wood=Location |
| 2 | **collect** | past | the eagle *not said here* | the softest |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent soft=Theme |
| 3 | **find** | could | greenest moss |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **make** | to-infinitive | greenest moss *not said here* | a bed | moss |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset she=Beneficiary bed=Product |
| 5 | **pick** | past | eagle | all brightest flowers |  | the fields or the mountains | then | with eagle's beak | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flower=Patient |
| 6 | **decorate** | to-infinitive | eagle *not said here* | bed |  |  |  |  | vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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 Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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