---
title: In a moment all the birds in the world seemed flying round his head,… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In a moment all the birds in the world seemed flying round his head, and he crumbled some of his bread for them and watched them as they darted down to pick it up. Who acts: birds, man. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 22, with its dependency tree a
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 22, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In a moment all the birds in the world seemed flying round his head, and he crumbled some of his bread for them and watched them as they darted down to pick it up.

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**Who acts:** birds, man · **What happens:** seem, fly, crumble, watch, dart down, pick up · **To what, where:** head, some, birds

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 22. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (birds, man), 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:pg2435:22:26
# text = In a moment all the birds in the world seemed flying round his head, and he crumbled some of his bread for them and watched them as they darted down to pick it up.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
4	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	6	det:predet	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	xcomp	_	_
12	round	round	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	crumbled	crumble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
19	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	darted	dart	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	_
31	down	down	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	pick	pick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	advcl	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	up	up	ADP	RP	_	33	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | all birds in the world |  |  |  | moment |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **fly** | gerund | all birds in the world *not said here* |  |  | man's head |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme round head=Trajectory |
| 3 | **crumble** | past | man | some |  |  |  | for birds *= bird* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent some=Patient |
| 4 | **watch** | past | man *not said here* | birds *= bird* |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 5 | **dart down** | past | birds *= bird* |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **pick up** | to-infinitive | birds *= bird* *not said here* | head |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

<!-- .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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