---
title: While they were eating, the eagle questioned his guest about his tra… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: While they were eating, the eagle questioned his guest about his travels, and if he was wandering for pleasure’s sake, or with any special aim. Who acts: feet, eagle, king. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 80

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While they were eating, the eagle questioned his guest about his travels, and if he was wandering for pleasure’s sake, or with any special aim.

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**Who acts:** feet, eagle, king · **What happens:** eat, question, travel, wonder · **To what, where:** guest

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (feet, eagle, king), 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:pg2435:18:80
# text = While they were eating, the eagle questioned his guest about his travels, and if he was wandering for pleasure’s sake, or with any special aim.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	eagle	eagle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	questioned	question	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	guest	guest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	travels	travel	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	wandering	wonder	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’s	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	sake	sake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	29	det	_	_
28	special	special	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	aim	aim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | past · progressive | feet *= foot* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **question** *speech: other* | past | the eagle |  | king's guest |  |  |  | vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent guest=Recipient |
| 3 | **travel** | present | the eagle *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **wonder** *speech: ask* *a condition, not said to happen* | past · progressive | king |  |  |  |  | for pleasure's sake; with any special aim | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

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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 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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