---
title: Is that a white gull he sees flying towards the shore, or is it a sa… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Is that a white gull he sees flying towards the shore, or is it a sail? Who acts: white gull, gull. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 5, sentence 114

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Is that a white gull he sees flying towards the shore, or is it a sail?

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**Who acts:** white gull, gull · **What happens:** be, fly · **To what, where:** shore, sail

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (white gull, gull), 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:pg2435:5:114
# text = Is that a white gull he sees flying towards the shore, or is it a sail?
1	Is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
2	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	gull	gull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	sees	see	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
8	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	xcomp	_	_
9	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	sail	sail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | a white gull |  |  |  |  | see *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fly** | gerund | a white gull *not said here* |  |  | the shore |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme towards shore=Destination |
| 3 | **is a** | present | gull | a sail |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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