---
title: The birds saw the food, and flew round his head in numbers hoping fo… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The birds saw the food, and flew round his head in numbers hoping for some crumbs, but he threw stones at them, and frightened them off. Who acts: birds, numbers, beggar. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/21/107/)

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 107

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The birds saw the food, and flew round his head in numbers hoping for some crumbs, but he threw stones at them, and frightened them off.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** birds, numbers, beggar · **What happens:** see, fly, hope, throw, frighten off · **To what, where:** food, numbers, stones

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (birds, numbers, beggar), 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:pg2435:21:107
# text = The birds saw the food, and flew round his head in numbers hoping for some crumbs, but he threw stones at them, and frightened them off.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
9	round	round	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	numbers	number	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
14	hoping	hope	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	acl	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
17	crumbs	crumb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
22	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
28	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	off	off	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the birds | the food |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer food=Stimulus |
| 2 | **fly** | past | the birds *not said here* |  |  | numbers |  | round beggar's head | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in number=Location |
| 3 | **hope** | gerund | numbers *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for some crumbs | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for crumb=Theme |
| 4 | **throw** | past | beggar | stones |  |  |  | at stones *= stone* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent stone=Theme at they=Destination |
| 5 | **frighten off** | past |  | stones *= stone* |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus they=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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