---
title: But this time there was no cowering, timid magpie to do his bidding,… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But this time there was no cowering, timid magpie to do his bidding, but a bird with his head erect and a determined voice. Who acts: magpie. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 24, sentence 84

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But this time there was no cowering, timid magpie to do his bidding, but a bird with his head erect and a determined voice.

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**Who acts:** magpie · **What happens:** do, bid · **To what, where:** bidding

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (magpie), 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:pg2435:24:84
# text = But this time there was no cowering, timid magpie to do his bidding, but a bird with his head erect and a determined voice.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	5	expl	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
6	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	7	det	_	_
7	cowering	cowering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	timid	timid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	magpie	magpie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	appos	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	bidding	bidding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	erect	erect	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	determined	determined	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | to-infinitive |  | magpie's bidding |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bidding=Eventuality |
| 2 | **bid** |  | magpie |  |  |  |  |  | nom bidding «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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